Orbital Mechanics III

SNS 304
L-2

Osama M. Shalabiea
Introduction
✓ We begin with the Gibbs method of predicting an orbit using three
geocentric position vectors.

✓ This is followed by a presentation of Lambert’s problem, in which an orbit

is determined from two position vectors and the time between them.
✓ Both the Gibbs and Lambert procedures are based on
the fact that two-body orbits lie in a plane.

✓ The Lambert problem is more complex and requires using

the Lagrange f and g functions introduced in Chapter 2 as well as the
universal variable formulation introduced in Chapter 3.

✓ The Lambert algorithm is employed in Chapter 8 to analyze interplanetary

missions.
 5.3 LAMBERT’S PROBLEM , an orbit is determined
from two position vectors and the time between them.

Suppose we know the position vectors r1 and r2 of two points P1 and

P2 on the path of mass m around mass M, as illustrated in Fig. 5.3.
 r1 and r2 determine the change in the true anomaly Δθ, since

Fig. 5.3 Lambert’s problem

However, if cosΔθ > 0, then Δθ lies in either the first or fourth quadrant;
whereas if cosΔθ < 0, then Δθ lies in the second or third quadrant

The first step in resolving this quadrant ambiguity is to calculate the Z

component of r1 x r2,
J.H. Lambert (1728–1777) was a French-born German astronomer, physicist,
and mathematician. Lambert proposed that the transfer time Δt from P1 to P2
in Fig. 5.3 is independent of the orbit’s eccentricity and depends only on
a)the sum r1 + r2 of the magnitudes of the position vectors,
b) the semimajor axis a,
c) and the length c of the chord joining P1 and P2.