how do satellites orbit around LaGrangian points?
In: Engineering
Well, it only really happens at L4 and L5.
If you look at the following image, if you’re orbiting L4 or L5, you’ll be following one of those oblong contours around it. This is only in a frame of reference where the other two bodies are fixed:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange_point#/media/File:Lagrange_points2.svg
Basically, when you’re orbiting L4 the planet pulls you closer to the sun, which speeds you up, which flings you back out past the planet’s orbit, which slows you down again. If you’re watching the satellite orbit around the sun, it has the same period as the planet, but it goes both above and below the planet’s orbit.
L5 is the opposite, the satellite approaches the planet from a lower, faster orbit, then gets flung out where it slows down.
Caveat: that image is very much not-to-scale. If you want to play around with a simulation, I remember there was a mod called Principia for kerbal space program. Here’s a screenshot of a lagrange point orbit in that: https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/57dfw2/found_out_principia_was_getting_stable_so_i_sent/
Latest Answers