Astra's Guide to Orbits

Best Orbital Mechancs and Spaceflight Pages

Basics of Spaceflight from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Some of the information presented in the Orbit's guide can be found on the Basics of Spaceflight from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory website. Of course, it has been adapted here for Astra's Stargate.

Basics of Spaceflightbegins at this link, for those who want to start at the beginning and follow through.

NASA Basics of Spaceflight

Another NASA resource the Basics of Spaceflight comes from the Solar System Exploration page.

Orbital Mechanics - Rocketry and Space Technology

From Robert A. Braeunig's Rocket and Space Technology website, the Orbital Mechanics page provides equations along with detailed information.

Gravity & Mechanics - Information on Ellipses from NASA's Solar System Exploration Page

A Course on Orbital Mechanics and Spacecraft Dynamics - MatthewPeet

This is a link to Matthew Peet's Cybernetic Systems and Controls YouTube channel. It is a playlist containing many in-depth videos including orbital mechanics, history, rockets, spacecraft, an a lot more. There are seriously 40 videos that may be helpful for students and those investigating this topic.

Fundmentals of Astrodynamics - Lynnane George

Lynnane George is a mechanic engineer who has taught for 24 years, in addition to the 20 years she spent in the Air Force and prepared Fundmentals of Astrodynamics for advanced students at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. While Astra's Orbits guide is written for a general audience, Fundmentals of Astrodynamics is an in-depth course.

Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion Websites

Kepler's Laws and Acceleration

Kepler's Laws

Newton's Laws of motion - NASA Glenn

NASA on Kepler

Basic Concepts of Manned Spacecraft Design - Federal Aviation Administration

This link leads to the Advanced Aerospace Medicine On-line, where there are PDFs that relate to many of the topics discussed in Astra's Guide to Orbits. They are well done and contain indepth information.

NASA Basics of Spaceflight

Newton's Cannon

An interactive simulation based on Newton's Cannon by Michael Fowler and Drew Dolgert. It is a simulated experiment where a slide control adjusts the amount of gunpower to be loaded. Go ahead, turn on the sound! See what it takes to put that digital projectile into orbit.

Teaching Newton's Cannon" - M.I.T. Physics Department, Sean P. Robinson

Another interactive simulation that allows more parameters to be changed.

Newton's Cannon - by Geoff Nunes

This interactive simulation has a more modern look and easy access to teachers information. It has an option to simulate a flat Earth. (Hint: A rocket can never escape from the flat Earth.)

Gravity and Newton's Cannon

Ron Kurtus maintains the School for Champions web page chock full of great pages, including a deep dive into orbital mechanics. The School for Champions is intended to help others achieve their dreams and goals.

Newton's Cannon Walkthrough Video

This video has a runtime of 4:09, it is nicely done by the CK-12 Foundation, that provides textbooks, videos and other resources and provides these materials for free to millions of students. There are other such videos out there and a youTube search can find them easily.

Other Great Resources for Information

NASA Ames Research Center Trajectory Browser

The Trajectory Browser website hosted at the NASA Ames Research Center provides a search engine, a visualizer and mission summaries for designing trajectories to planets and small-bodies such as Near Earth Objects (NEOs).

ROCKET SCIENCE explained in 15 minutes! - Arvin Ash