3 ms·

That Earth-Moon L2 halo orbit is cool, I didn't even know that was a thing. [edit] I mean I was aware of Lagrange points, but not the practicality of the halo

• Florin_Andrei 8y ago
  Yeah, it instantly makes sense if you calculate the force at the Lagrange point and notice the vector points back at the exact L point when you're in the vicinity - and then you go, hmmm, looks like it might be possible to orbit that thing.
• acranox 8y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point
  • Isamu 8y ago
    An interesting point from that page: >A full n-body dynamical system such as the Solar System does not contain these periodic orbits, but does contain quasi-periodic (i.e. bounded but not precisely repeating) orbits following Lissajous-curve trajectories. These quasi-periodic Lissajous orbits are what most of Lagrangian-point space missions have used until now. Although they are not perfectly stable, a modest effort of station keeping keeps a spacecraft in a desired Lissajous orbit for a long time.
  • daveslash 8y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_orbit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_orbit "Halo orbits can be thought of as resulting from an interaction between the gravitational pull of the two planetary bodies and the Coriolis and centrifugal accelerations on a spacecraft."
• enos 8y ago
  Will L2 congestion become a problem once JWST and a few more missions join this craft? Will we have to manage that orbit like we do with geostationary?