Angle of acceleration required
by Johannes Pauw · in Technical Issues · 12/21/2006 (1:25 pm) · 2 replies
Hey, it's been a while since High School calculus, and I was wondering if anyone could pull out what I'd need (or send me off to a resource where I could figure it out). I need a function that will calculate the angle of acceleration needed to make sure that one object (a spaceship) will intersect a point (in space) on a 2d plane (in TGB). The spaceship has true momentum, so it has to take into account it's own velocity in some direction, and calculate what angle it has to accelerate at to make the best possible time to the point it's trying to reach.
I figure that's clear enough... if not, I'll try and explain better. Plus, if someone just knows an online resource where I could figure this stuff out, that'd be good enough. I'm not asking you to do all my work for me :D.
Johannes Pauw
I figure that's clear enough... if not, I'll try and explain better. Plus, if someone just knows an online resource where I could figure this stuff out, that'd be good enough. I'm not asking you to do all my work for me :D.
Johannes Pauw
#2
astrowww.phys.uvic.ca/~tatum/classmechs.html
04/27/2007 (4:52 am)
Take a look at this resource, chapters 6-10 in particular. Ch. 6 is about uniformly accelerating motion, ch. 7 is about projectiles in general and ch. 10 is on the "rocket equation". astrowww.phys.uvic.ca/~tatum/classmechs.html
Torque 3D Owner Matthew Jessick
Are you trying to intercept (fly through a point as soon as possible) or rendezvous (stop on a point)? (Sounds like you wanted intercept - just checking.)
Are gravity or other forces involved? If so, is the gravity constant (not a function of height)?
Is the rocket acceleration or thrust constant, or changing? (This isn't too important for most physics assumptions, actually, but thought I'd ask.)
Rocket style optimal guidance algorithms are well known for various types of simplified problems like this. With a better idea of exactly what you need I could point you toward solutions.
There have also been previous threads on ballistics topic, but these are for zero thrust, IIRC.