INTRODUCTION TO SPACE FLIGHT

Since the birth of first successful flight created by the Wright Brothers, humans have always
desired to fly faster and higher. As they have always pushed the limits of engineering, we
were able to fly faster and much higher as compared to the first flight by Wright Brothers.
The quest for air dominance created during the world wars ultimately resulted to something
called as the SPACE RACE that was witnessed post World War II. Space race formally
began with the Soviets launching first artificial satellite Sputnik-I to go into the low earth
orbit. After Sputnik, many countries began launching satellites to orbit within 12 years people
walked on moon, probes were launched into Venus and mars and more.

The physical fundamentals and engineering associated with space vehicles are somewhat
different from those associated with airplanes. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce
some of the basic concepts of space flight i.e., to introduce the discipline of astronautics. This
chapter includes the analysis of orbits, the trajectories of space vehicles operating under the
influence of gravitational forces only (such as vacuum in free space).

The space age formally began on October 4, 1957, when the Soviet Union launched the
Sputnik-1, the first artificial satellite to go into orbit about earth. Unlike the first flight of
Wright Brothers in 1903, which took years to have any impact on society, the effect of
Sputnik-1 on the world was immediate. Within twelve years people had walked the moon,
and after another 7 years, unmanned probes were resting on surfaces of Venus and mars. A
variety of different space vehicles for different space missions have been launched since then.

Fig: Earth Orbit and Earth-Moon Mission

In physical science, a study of forces and motion of bodies is called Mechanics. If the body is
motionless, this study is further identified as Statics; if the body is moving, the study is
termed as Dynamics. In this chapter, we are concerned with the dynamics of space vehicles.

Problems in dynamics usually involve the use of Newton’s second law, F=ma, where F is the
force, m is mass, a is acceleration. This equation is important in obtaining the momentum
equation in aerodynamics for determining the forces acting on the airplane in motion.
However, in this section we use Lagrange’s equation which is a corollary of Newton’s second
law. Use of Lagrange’s equation represents an alternative approach to the solution of
dynamics problems in lieu of F=ma. Lagrange’s equation is used to study the orbits and
trajectories of space vehicles and greatly simplifies the complexity of the problems.

LAGRANGE’s EQUATION
Consider a body of mass m falling freely in the earth gravitational field as shown in fig. Let x
be the vertical distance of the body from the ground. If we ignore drag, the only force acting
on the body is the weight w force in the downward direction. We know that weight w=mg.

Fig: Falling Body

From Newton’s second law,

F  ma ……………….(1)

The force is weight directed downward and the sign is negative since it is acting towards the
earth centre.

F   w   mg ……………….(2)

d 2x
a  2  x ……………….(3)
dt
Equating the forces
 mg  mx ……………….(4)
x   g ……………….(5)
Equation (6) is the equation of motion of the body considered on the example that is obtained
by using Newton’s second law.

An alternative formulation for the same example can be obtained using Lagrange’s equation.
Lagrange’s equation treats the dynamics of various moving body in terms of kinetic and
potential energy difference. Lagrange’s function is defined as the difference between kinetic
and potential energy of the body and denoted as B.
B  T   ……………….(6)
T=Kinetic Energy (J)
 = Potential Energy (J)
By definition, Kinetic energy of the body is energy by virtue of motion of the body and
represented as
1
T  mV 2 ……………….(7)
2
For our example, the equation can be given as
1
T mx 2 ……………….(8)
2
Similarly, potential energy of the body is the energy by virtue of its position from
equilibrium.
  wh ……………….(9)
w  mg & h  x ……………….(10)
  mgx ……………….(11)
B  T   ……………….(12)
1
B
mx 2  mgx ……………….(13)
2
General form of Lagrange’s equation is given as
d B B
( )  0 ……………….(14)
dt x x
B
 mx
x
B
  mg
x
d
( mx )  (  mg )  0 ……………….(15)
dt
d
m ( x )  ( mg )  0
dt
mx  mg  0
 mg  mx
x   g ……………….(16)
We see that equations (5) and (16) are identical. From this we induce that Lagrange’s and
Newton’s second law lead to same equations of motion. With the above example, a more
general formulation of Lagrange’s equation can be given in 3-Dimensional space coordinates.
Consider a body moving in 3-dimensional space described by generalized spatial coordinates
q1, q2 and q3. Kinetic Energy depends on position ( q1 , q2 .q3 ) as well as Velocity (time-
q1 , q 2 , q3 ) and the coordinates are
 T  T (q1 , q 2 .q 3 , q1 , q 2 , q 3 ) ……………….(17)
Similarly, Potential energy depends only on position and not on time or velocity.
   (q1 , q 2 .q 3 ) ……………….(18)

From Lagrangian Function we obtain the equations of motion (One equation of motion along
each coordinate) in three different coordinates:
d B B
Along q1 coordinate: ( )  0 ……………….(19)
dt q1 q1

d B B
Along q 2 coordinate: ( )  0 ……………….(20)
dt q 2 q 2

d B B
Along q3 coordinate: ( )  0 ……………….(21)
dt q 3 q 3

The Lagrangian equations obtained in the previous section will be used to derive the equation
describing the path or trajectory of a space vehicle. Space vehicles are launched from a
planet’s surface by rocket boosters. Here we are concerned with the motion of the vehicle
after all stages of the booster have burned out and the payload is smoothly moving through
space under the influence of gravitational forces. At the instant of the last booster stage burn
out, the space vehicle is at a given distance from the centre of the planet moving in a specific
direction with a specific velocity. Obviously, nature prescribes a specific path at burnout. The
purpose of this section is to derive the equation for the path described by the vehicle.

THE ORBIT EQUATION

Consider a vehicle of mass m moving with a velocity V in the vicinity of a planet of mass M
as shown in figure. The distance between the centres of two masses is r.

Fig: Movement of small mass m in the gravitational field of large mass M

The force of attraction between the two masses can be given by Newton’s law of gravitation.

GmM
F ……………….(22)
r2
G=6.67 x 10-11 m3/kgs2

Since Lagrange’s equation deals with kinetic and potential energies, let us deduce the
equation for the same for the given case. First consider the Potential Energy. For a body to
possess Potential energy  , it should be under the influence of planet’s gravitational force. A
body at a distance  from the centre of the planet, the Potential energy  will be zero. In
such cases, to bring the body from  radius to radius r where the body experiences enough
gravitational force and hence potential energy, work has to be done on the body of mass m in
moving from  to the location r. If the distance between M and m is changed by a small
increment dr, then the work done in producing this change is F.dr. This is also the change in
the potential energy d  .

GmM
d  Fdr  dr ……………….(23)
r2
Integrating from  to r . At infinity  ,   0 and at radius r    , then we get

 r
GmM
 d  
0  r2
dr

 GmM
 ……………….(24)
r
Now consider the kinetic energy. The figure below gives the condition of velocity at the end
of burn out stage. At burn out, the body of mass m in a central force field will have two
components on velocity in polar coordinates. The velocity component parallel to r is
dr d
Vr   r and perpendicular to radius r rV  r ( )  r . Therefore the total
dt dt
kinetic energy of the vehicle is

1 1
T mV 2  [r 2  (r) 2 ]m ……………….(25)
2 2
 Fig: Velocity of the vehicle in polar coordinate system
Lagrangian function is given by
B  T 
Substitute eqn. (24) and (25) in B
1 GmM
B  T    m[r 2  (r) 2 ]  ……………….(26)
2 r
In orbital analysis, it is common to denote the product GM by k2.

Equation (26) now becomes

1 k 2m
B m[r 2  (r) 2 ]  ……………….(27)
2 r
Now invoke Lagrange’s equation, where q1   and q 2  r

First consider θ Equation

d B B
( )  0 ……………….(28)
dt  
B
 mr 2 ……………….(29)

B
 0 ……………….(30)

Substituting eqn. (29) and (30) in (28)
d
(mr 2)  0 ……………….(31)
dt
Integrating eqn. (31) we get
mr 2  Const  c1
mr2θ=Angular Momentum=Constant……………….(32)
Now consider the r equation.
d B B
( )  0 ……………….(33)
dt r r
 B
 mr ……………….(34)
r
B  mk 2
 mr  2
2
……………….(35)
r r
Substituting Eqn. (33) and (34) in (32), we get
d  mk 2
(mr)  mr  2  0 ……………….(36)
2

dt r
 mk 2
mr  mr  2  0 ……………….(37)
 2

r
2
From eqn. (32), since m is constant, even r θ is a constant.
2
Denote r θ as h= Angular Momentum per unit mass
3
Multiply and divide the second term of equation (37) by r and cancelling m yields,
r 4 2 mk 2
mr  m 3  2  0
r r
2 2
h k
r  3  2  0 ……………….(38)
r r
Equation (38) is the equation of motion for the space vehicle in r direction. Note that both h2
and r2 are constants. We see that eqn. (38) is a differential equation that is a function of time
i.e., r=f(t). The equation of the path of the vehicle in space should be geometrically given by
r=f(θ) and not r=f(t). Since we want the equation of space vehicle motion in terms its
geometrical coordinate’s r and θ, the eqn. (38) must be reworked as follows.

Let us transform eqn. (38) to a new dependent variable u, where

1
r ……………….(39)
u
Then

h  r 2  ……………….(40)
u2
Hence,
dr d (1 / u ) 1 du
r   2
dt dt u dt
1 du d  du du
 2  2  h ……………….(41)
u d dt u d d
Differentiate eqn. (41) with respect to t, we get
 d du d du d
r   h   h( )
dt d d d dt
 d 2 u  d  d 2u  
r  h 2   h 2  ……………….(42)
 d  dt  d 

Also from eqn. (40),   u h

2

Substitute it in eqn. (42)

d 2u
r  h 2 u 2 ……………….(43)
d 2
Substitute eqn (39) and (43) into (38), we obtain
d 2u
h u 2
 h 2u 3  k 2u 2  0
2

d 2

2 2
Or dividing by h u , we get
d 2u k2
 u  2  0 ……………….(44)
d 2 h

Equation (44) is a differential equation and its solution gives u=f(θ). Specifically, a solution
of eqn. (44) is

k2
u  2  A cos(  C ) ……………….(45)
h

1
A and C are essentially the constants of integration. Substitute eqn. (45) in r 
u

1
r ……………….(46)
k2
 A cos(  C )
h2
2 2
Multiply and divide eqn. (46) by h /k

h2
r k2
……………….(47)
h2
1  A( 2 ) cos(  C )
k
Equation (47) is the desired equation of the path (orbit or trajectory) of the space vehicle and
is generally called as the ORBIT EQUATION. It’s an algebraic equation for r=f(θ). It
gives the geometric coordinates r and θ. The specific path is dictated by the values h2, A and
C in eqn. (47). In turn these constant are fixed by the conditions at the time of burnout as
shown in figure below. At burnout the vehicle is at the distance rb from the centre of earth,
and its velocity has a magnitude Vb and is in the direction βb with respect to a perpendicular
r. These burnout conditions completely specify the vehicles path i.e., they determine the
values of h2, A and C in eqn. (47). This orbit equation applied to the trajectory of the space
vehicle escaping from the gravitational field of earth as well as any artificial satellite in the
orbit of earth.

Fig: Conditions at the instant of burnout

SPACE VEHICLE TRAJECTORIES

Equation (47) derived in the previous section defines the actual path or trajectory taken by the
space vehicle under the influence of only gravitational forces of sun, moon and other planets
in space. By carefully examining the equation we can define what kind of trajectory the space
vehicle will take. Consider eqn (47)

h2
r k2
……………….(47)
h2
1  A( 2 ) cos(  C )
k
Eqn (47) can be represented in a general form as given below,

P
r ……………….(48)
1  e cos(  C )

h2  h2 
Where P  , e A 2  and C is simply a phase angle. From analytic geometry, Eqn.
k2 k 
(48) is the standard form of a conic section in polar coordinates. Eqn 48 represents the
equation of a circle, ellipse, parabola or the hyperbola depending on the value of e , where e
is the eccentricity of the conic section. Specifically;
 e0 The path is a Circle
e 1 The path is a Ellipse
e 1 The path is a Parabola
e 1 The path is a Hyperbola

Note that point b on these sketches denote the point of burnout and that θ is referenced to the
dashed line through b, that is θ is arbitrarily chosen as Zero at burnout. Then C is simply a
phase angle which orients the x and y axes with respect to the burnout point, where x axis is
the line of symmetry for the conic section. From the figure, it shows that circular and
elliptical paths result in an orbit about the large mass M (the earth), whereas the parabolic and
hyperbolic paths result in escape from the earth.

On a physical basis, the eccentricity, hence the type of path for the space vehicle is governed
by the kinetic and potential energies of the vehicle. The eccentricity in terms of difference in
kinetic and potential energies H is given as
 2h 2 H
e  1 ……………….(49)
mk 4

If the kinetic energy is smaller than the potential energy, H will be negative and hence e<1. If
the kinetic and potential energies are equal, H=0 and e=1. Similarly, if the kinetic energy is
larger than the potential energy, H is positive and e>1.

KEPLER’S LAWS

Kepler’s I Law: A satellite describes an elliptical path around its centre of attraction.

Kepler’s II Law: In equal times, the areas swept out by the radius vector of a satellite are
the same.

PROOF:
Kepler’s III Law: The periods of any two satellites about the same planet are related to
their semi-major axes.