Propulsion - Orbital Mechanics (page 1 of 6)
Figure 1: Values used during Orbital Calculations
The orbital calculations assume that Earth and Venus lie in the same orbital plane. This means that the time between inferior conjunctions should be equal when in fact this is not exactly the case. It also assumes that the gravitation effects of other celestial bodies are neglected. Finally, it also assumes that the minimum distance between Earth and Venus at each conjunction is the same when in fact it is not. It tends to vary between 39 million and 44 million km. The published dates for upcoming inferior conjunctions are:
11 Jan 2014, 15 Aug 2015 , 25 Mar 2017
MATLAB simulations given the above parameters and assumptions do not coincide with these dates as the reality is much more complicated that the simple assumptions we have made. We will use the simulated dates and times as the real ones for the duration of the report.