Some Counterintuitive Examples Of Orbital Mechanics

[JMJones0424]

This is an 11 minute youtube video covering how orbital mechanics is different than normal expectations.  For instance, throw an object straight down from the space station, and as you orbit, it will rise and advance until it comes back and hits you.  In order to send an object to Earth from the space station, you need to accelerate retrograde, not accelerate radially towards Earth.  

 

[exchemist]

This is an 11 minute youtube video covering how orbital mechanics is different than normal expectations.  For instance, throw an object straight down from the space station, and as you orbit, it will rise and advance until it comes back and hits you.  In order to send an object to Earth from the space station, you need to accelerate retrograde, not accelerate radially towards Earth.  

 

Yes, because you would be giving it an elliptical orbit with greater eccentricity than the orbit of the space station, presumably. 

 

My favourite surprising result in orbital mechanics, however, is the Lagrangian points :). . Does the video cover them? 

[JMJones0424]

No, it doesn't, but it does cover the history of Gemini astronauts trying to rendezvous prior to Buzz Aldrin, who literally wrote the book on how to rendezvous in orbital mechanics.  Unlike the experience we have on the surface of the Earth, accelerating towards your target is not necessarily the appropriate means to get from A to B.

[DaveC426913]

I remember the mantra from Niven's 'Integral Trees':

 

Down to go forward.

Forward to go up.

Up to go back.

Back to go down.