Good eye Ace!
No the engine shutdown occurred after the transfer burn, so after the second screenshot. However, you are correct that Ap and Pa continue to change, and shouldn't as the orbit isn't changing. The reason for this is because a few of the current equations don't support hyperbolic trajectories exceeding e > 1.0 and therefore I must include a logic section in the flight_computer.js to switch equations once limits are exceeded. Regardless, once a spacecraft exceeds escape velocity on a transfer orbit, it is in a heliocentric orbit around the Sun, and of course OT doesn't support multi-body physics yet, so I can't calculate the semi-major axis to derive aphelion and perihelion in that case. I should actually have the string name for Ap/Pa change in the flight computer depending on the orbit, for Earth apogee/perigee, Moon apolune/perilune, etc. You'll also notice the value for Perigee is negative on a hyperbolic trajectory and this is also incorrect.
The long term plan for the flight computer is that you can not only calculate your current orbital elements, but input data for a future orbital state, or target TLE (two-line element), and calculate the required delta velocity and thrust vector for the transfer. You see that I am currently targeting the ISS, which isn't physically orbiting yet, however I can compute launch azimuth and simulate orbital rendezvous and phasing from those targeting parameters. The equations for ground track and a number of other navigation functions are coming soon.
Simulation is still running... T+7900 s and counting.
Best regards,
Uriah
Author
Topic: AeroKinetics Mod (Read 174378 times)