NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Cel nav in space
From: Cliff Sojourner
Date: 2005 Jan 4, 15:44 -0800
From: Cliff Sojourner
Date: 2005 Jan 4, 15:44 -0800
Derrick, where did you get this, much of this seems wrong to me. all flying things follow a "ballistic" trajectory, plus or minus lift. there is no "gravity turn trajectory". my model and high power rockets are unguided so mostly fly straight up. even so, they are on a ballistic trajectory which is pretty easily calculated a number of different ways. but not commonly with a Taylor series. the shuttle is steered eastward intentionally, to get an extra 1000 MPH for "free" from the earth's rotation. most everything else launched from Kennedy is sent the same way. but the intentional steering has nothing to do with weight of propellant or max Q.