Download Assignment 3

AEM 3100 Intro to MATLAB
9/19/2012
Assignment 3
Orbital Mechanics: Towards a problem solving environment
1) Below are a set of physical parameters for the planets. Save these in a '.mat' file. You can load this
file when you are solving related problems.
Celestial body
Sun
μ (km 3 /s 2)
SOI radius
(km)
132,712,000,000
Radius (km)
696,000
Mercury
22,030
112,000
2,440
Venus
324,900
616,000
6,052
Earth
398,600
925,000
6,378
Earth's moon
4,903
66,100
1,737
Mars
42,828
577,000
3,396
Jupiter
126,686,000
48,200,000
71,490
Saturn
37,931,000
54,800,000
60,270
Uranus
5,794,000
51,800,000
25,560
Neptune
6,835,100
86,600,000
24,760
830
3,080,000
1,195
Pluto
2) The escape velocity at a given position is the velocity required for a spacecraft at that position to be
on a parabolic orbit. It is given by the formula:
2μ
v esc =
r
√
Calculate (in MATLAB and using the saved data) the escape velocity a) from the surface of Earth, b)
from the surface of Mars
3) It can be easy to forget the names of the variables you have defined. It may therefore be useful to
include some explanatory text along with the data saved. For example:
Gravitational parameter names are 'mu_planet-name': e.g. mu_earth
Planetary radius is 'r_planet-name': e.g. r_mars
SOI radius is denoted 'rsoi_planet-name':e.g. rsoi_venus
If you save the above text in a variable you could display it using 'disp'
4) Load the standard atmosphere file “standard_atmosphere.csv”. Plot the standard temperature,
pressure, and density as a function of altitude.