So this began as a programming project for my Spaceflight Mechanics class based around a two dimensional circular orbit model of our solar system (or a user created solar system). Written in MatLab's .m code, it includes functions for non-Hohmann elyptical transfers in planetary and solar orbit (also simplified for Hohmann transfers), Kepler's equations, plotting and animating the system, designing a different solar system, launching a rocket, and gravity assists. It is a bit buggy in certain parts though.
Examples:
Planets Venus through Pluto and their distance from the sun, angular velocity, and true anomaly. As you will see in version 1.0, having circular orbits simplifies everything significantly.
Again all the planets. As you would first think, the first three are not extremely close to the sun. Pluto sits at around 39 Au while the earth sits at 1 Au. Also, looking at a realistic figure of the solar system (as seen in version 1.0) shows how inaccurate the circular 2-d model is.
The launch program assumes a bunch of things and is not too accurate. You can do non-Hohmann interplanetary transfers, but this is a Hohmann. All of the outputs are relatively consistent with real launches, ie a circular 2-d can be used to estimate but will not work in real world conditions. You may also notice how large the third burn is. It is because this program does not use drag to slow the rocket down, as occurs in real situations.
Essentially this is what the alpha program does. Version 1.0 is a 3-d elliptical version of this, and includes many more functions which add to the experience. Read on to check out Version 1.0.



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