Orbiting Eden

Interactive Orrery and

Satellite Command and Control

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Instructions for traveling to the moon

Change orbits using the orbit select drop down list to achieve an equatorial insertion orbit.

Traveling to the moon is basically a Hohman Transfer Orbit where the apogee is within the gravity well of the moon.

So, if you want to go to the moon you need to start about 180 degrees off of where the moon will be when you reach it.

To save you some math and frustration, apply about 3,200 deltaV of thrust at about -137 degrees longitude on the first orbit after a screen refresh while on an equatorial orbit to get on trajectory for the moon.

Then increase your time travel factor to 100 until the entire earth fits on the screen and then use the input field (not the slider) to raise the time factor to 200 - 300. Any more than 300 and the calculations lose fidelity and become unacceptably inaccurate.

As you are flying away from the earth look back and notice the satellites orbiting.

When you are about 300,000km away from earth, start looking for the moon. It should be near the sun. As you get closer to the moon, it should get fuller and fuller.

Right around the time you reach the gravitic center (which is much closer to the moon than the earth) you may need to do a deceleration burn of between 500 and 1,000 deltaV if your velocity is increasing and above 5,000km/h. This usually happens just under 280,000 km altitude above the earth. Do not slow too much or your angular momentum will not be sufficient to achieve orbit and you will collide with the moon.

As you enter an orbit around the moon, you will need to do a few deceleration burns to enter a low altitude circular orbit. Follow the instructions on the main page for how to change and normalize orbits using Hohman Transfer orbits.