orb3e

orbital-mechanics tools

A small suite of interactive, in-browser tools for orbital mechanics — each one a focused, visual take on a classic problem. Real physics, honest numbers, nothing to install.

Spiral

Live

Continuous-thrust (electric-propulsion) orbit transfers — the slow spirals that ion engines actually fly. Numerically propagated, with animated playback and elliptical starts and targets.

Impulsive transfers

Live

Hohmann vs bi-elliptic transfers — the impulsive counterpart to Spiral, with a side-by-side Δv and time comparison over a to-scale visualization.

Lambert & porkchop

Planned

Transfer between two points in a set time, and the launch-window porkchop plots that fall out of it.

Ground tracks

Planned

The path a satellite traces over a rotating Earth — coverage, repeat cycles, and sun-synchronous design.

Rendezvous

Planned

Clohessy–Wiltshire relative motion — the proximity-operations and docking problem in the co-orbiting frame.