Talk:Capture orbit

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The (uncited) definitions of capture orbits and escape orbits are inconsistent with prevailing use.

The term "capture orbit" most often refers to any orbit where the orbital energy changes from positive to negative via a perturbation, e.g. a hyperbolic trajectory that becomes elliptic due to orbital insertion.


 * "MGS Mission Plan Section 5. Orbit Insertion Phase: This burn will take the spacecraft off of the hyperbolic approach trajectory and onto an elliptical capture orbit with a period of 48 hours"


 * From NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, a graph demonstrating an elliptic capture orbit

The content of this page has little to do with capture orbits, it should proably be merged with radial trajectory.

Should "Capture Orbit" be left as stub, a disambiguation page, or moved to Wiktionary?

Norbeck (talk) 13:05, 20 January 2010 (UTC)

Definition used in general relativity
"We find, therefore, that in general relativity, there is a whole new class of orbits, capture orbits where a particle with nonzero angular momentum can reach r=0"

Currently this page is redirected to parabolic orbits, capture orbits are not parabolic.

-- Norbeck (talk) 11:53, 21 January 2010 (UTC)