Target practice with Delta Gliders
OK, so what's interesting about this? It's just a screen shot of two Delta Gliders rather unrealistically passing through each other.
Yes, true. However....
Each Delta Glider is orbiting at around 7550 m/s in orbital planes oriented at right angles to each other. As the Delta Gliders pass through each other, their relative speed is 10.67 km/s. The above image shows the instant of 'rendezvous'.
Fair enough, but so what?
Well, this was an exercise in Orbiter 'target practice' with the 'non-spherical gravity sources' option turned on.
The basic premise of this test is:
Each Delta Glider starts its trajectory 1,460 seconds earlier and a quarter orbit away. One Delta Glider starts its trajectory near the South Pole; and the other 90 degree away at a remote point on the Earth's ecliptic plane. The initial separation of the vessels is 10,000 km. Neither Delta Glider adjusts its trajectory prior to rendezvous - i.e., trajectories are entirely ballistic. The initial velocity of one Delta Glider (the 'chase vehicle) is set using basic theory such that a 'rendezvous' should occur with the 'target vehicle’ at a specific location on a specific date.
From theory (and theory alone), an Orbiter scenario was then set up to see if practical integration matches theoretical design. And lo! It does. Rendezvous!
(Hat off to *martins* for producing a simulator that emulates real Newtonian gravity with considerable fidelity.)
