Earth Orbit

An educational engineering tool that simulates Earth orbit

An educational engineering tool that simulates the orbit of an object around the Earth using governing equations derived using the Lagrangian method. The app includes an adjustable simulation based on user-specified initial conditions and six historical example orbits to simulate (International Space Station, Hubble Space Telescope, Sputnik, Explorer 1, Vostok, and Mercury-Atlas 6).

In addition, there is a learning section detailing the hand calculations upon which the simulation is based. The learning section starts by explaining to coordinate system used, then covers kinematics up to the velocity level. The velocity level kinematics are used to construct the Lagrangian function, which is used in Lagrange's equation to yield the three governing equations for the system.