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Orbital Mechanics Projects

The Pennsylvania State University – Dr. Robert Melton

3D kinematics, rigid-boy dynamics, orbits, and orbital maneuver problems

September 2021 – December 2021

This course introduced me to astronautics topics and presented several orbital mechanics projects that required MATLAB scripts and simulations to solve.

satellite
Image by p2722754 from Pixabay

Background

AERSP 309 was a junior-level Astronautics course that covered 3D kinematics, rigid-boy dynamics, orbits, and orbital maneuvers. There were several projects and assignments that required Matlab to develop solutions to problems related to the course topics. 

Projects included: 

  • Writing a script that converts a satellite’s position and velocity from its own reference frame to the Earth’s reference frame 
  • Use Matlab to calculate several orbital elements and the three classical orbital angles to evaluate location in the 2D orbital plane 
  • Use of Euler Parameters to describe reference frame orientation 
  • Given limited orbital element information, find the rest of the data 

Links