Useful Article on Orbital Mechanics

[Kerbin vonKerbal]

In case anybody was wondering, I found an article written by the USAF on orbital mechanics and other detailed discussion. I thought it was a good read, and it explains a lot of different things such as types of orbits, Kepler's laws, orbital decay, etc. Anyway, here you go.

 

http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/space/au-18-2009/au-18_chap06.pdf

[K^2]

I have one tiny correction. While true anomaly is often used as one of 6 orbital elements, it's not a constant of motion, so if you look at orbital perturbation theory, it's more common to see T - time of periapsis. It is a fixed quantity for any orbit, so it's one of the constants of motion. And difference between current time t and time of periapsis multiplied by 2 pi divided by orbital period gives you mean anomaly M, which can then be converted to true anomaly. This is typically how you'll see orbits treated in most textbooks on orbital mechanics.

[Kerbin vonKerbal]

1 hour ago, K^2 said:

I have one tiny correction. 

Makes sense, thanks for pointing that out. I didn't read too deeply into it, just read a few of the orbital positions and types of payloads that fit with different orbits and their purposes, and so on. Just thought it would be interesting to those who are into that kinda thing.