% IAP 2006 Introduction to MATLAB % Programming % EXAMPLE 3 Orbital Velocity - A Script with Matrix Math Solution % This example uses the same data as Exercise Two in Session 1: Interface % and Basics, from NASA's educational site: % http://exploration.grc.nasa.gov/education/rocket/rktrflght.html % Compute a rocket's velocity V for a circular orbit around a planet. % Re is the planet's mean radius. % g0 is the planet's surface gravitational constant. % h is the altitude of the circular orbit. % V can be computed using the formula developed by Johannes Kepler: % V = sqrt(g0*Re^2/(Re+h)) % A. Create matrices % A1. Create a matrix with the values of Re for the Earth, Moon, and Mars. % The first column is in English units (miles), the second column is in % metric units (km). Re = [3963 1079 2111; 6376 1736 3396]' % A2. Create a matrix with the values of g0 for the Earth, Moon, and Mars. % The first column is in English units (ft/sec^2). % The second column is in metric units (m/sec^2). g0 = [32.2 9.814; 5.3 1.615; 12.1 3.688] % B. Create coefficients for unit conversion. % B1. For English units: uce = 3600^2/5280; % B2. For metric units: ucm = 3600^2/1000; % C. Solve for orbital altitude h = 100 miles = 160 km. % C1. In English units for the Earth, Moon, and Mars: g0e = g0(:, 1) Ree = Re(:, 1) Ve = sqrt(g0e .* Ree .^2 ./ (Ree+100)*uce) % C2. In metric units for the Earth, Moon, and Mars: g0m = g0(:, 2) Rem = Re(:, 2) Vm = sqrt(g0m .* Rem .^2 ./ (Rem+160)*ucm)