Magnetosphere

One Sidereal Day Construction orbit and associated plumes

A 1 sidereal day construction orbit with a perigee radius of 8378 km ( 6378 + 2000 ) and an apogee radius of 75950 km ( 2*42164 - 8378 ) has an apogee of 11.9 Re. Retrograde plumes for apogee orbit insertion will all orbit above the bow shock (and be exposed to the proton flux of the solar wind) many times per year. Two relevant related orbits will be a launch orbit from a perigee radius of 6458 km, and a HEEO to GEO/Laplace transfer orbit with a perigee radius of 42164 km (Ignoring J₂ gravitational effects):

Radius km

Velocity km/s

Orbit

Perigee

Apogee

Semimajor

Perigee

Apogee

Semimajor

Delta V

Launch

6458

75950

41204

10.666

0.907

3.110

10.190 perigee prograde

Construction HEEO

8378

75950

42164

9.257

1.021

3.075

0.114 apogee prograde

GEO Transfer

42164

75950

59057

3.487

1.936

2.598

0.915 apogee prograde

GEO

42164

42164

42164

3.075

3.075

3.075

0.412 perigee retrograde

A rocket launch plume is almost entirely deposited in the atmosphere (a huge waste of energy and propellant, which is why launch loop is attractive ... if it is practical). No permanent plume problem (except for maneuvering and plane change thrust) so it will not be considered further. The other three Delta V's might cause permanent plume problems, let's find out:

Transfer Plume Velocity Range

altitude

escape

entry

vmin

vmax

maneuver and plume direction

km

km/s

km/s

km/s

km/s

0.114 km/s apogee delta retrograde

75950

3.240

0.907

-0.907

-1.021

0.915 km/s apogee delta retrograde

75950

3.240

0.907

-1.021

-1.936

0.412 km/s perigee delta prograde

42164

4.348

1.585

+3.487

+3.075

Magnetosphere (last edited 2019-09-19 06:20:47 by KeithLofstrom)