7 ms·
Geometers Engineer New Tools to Wrangle Spacecraft Orbits
- clarkmoody 2y agoThe term "Geometers" makes me think of Neal Stephenson's Anathem, which is just as will, since the article is about advanced orbits.
- terramars 2y agoThis is really cool research, but to say "symplectic geometry, an abstract field of math that is generally far removed from messy real-world details" in the context of orbit planning is a gross mischaracterization. All serious solar system dynamics research happens in phase space not cartesian space, which means symplectic geometry - that is the orbital parameters are integrated instead of x,y,z. This amusingly named website has a fairly approachable description of what's happening : https://wiki.tfes.org/Symplectic_Integrators https://wiki.tfes.org/Symplectic_Integrators
- nextaccountic 2y ago... did you link a website advocating that the shape of Earth is flat?
- hiAndrewQuinn 2y agoFlat Earthers spend thousands of times more effort on their research than Roundies do, because they understand that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Few know this.
- blkhawk 2y agowell only most "roundies" don't waste time on settled concepts. So flat earthers can easily spend 1000 times more effort than no effort at all. its just too bad that their research is stupid and fruitless. I also think they understand very little.
- terramars 2y agoi thought it was making fun of flat earthers? it's pretty amusing they have a good writeup on a very technical piece of very circular math if that is not the case.
- reaperman 2y agoThey have newsletters going back to 1977, I can't find any evidence they are satirical.
- nuc1e0n 2y agoThe picture at the start of the article looks like Lissajous patterns. And sure enough Lissajous orbits around lagrange points are a thing according to wikipedia.