Geometers Engineer New Tools to Wrangle Spacecraft Orbits

by piotrkaminskion 4/15/2024, 8:43 PMwith 8 comments

by terramarson 4/16/2024, 6:07 AM

This is really cool research, but to say "symplectic geometry, an abstract field of math that is generally far removed from messy real-world details" in the context of orbit planning is a gross mischaracterization. All serious solar system dynamics research happens in phase space not cartesian space, which means symplectic geometry - that is the orbital parameters are integrated instead of x,y,z. This amusingly named website has a fairly approachable description of what's happening : https://wiki.tfes.org/Symplectic_Integrators

by clarkmoodyon 4/16/2024, 3:37 AM

The term "Geometers" makes me think of Neal Stephenson's Anathem, which is just as will, since the article is about advanced orbits.

by nuc1e0non 4/16/2024, 11:18 PM

The picture at the start of the article looks like Lissajous patterns. And sure enough Lissajous orbits around lagrange points are a thing according to wikipedia.