ASE329 : SPACE AND

STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS

UNIT 1
SOLAR SYSTEM
INTRODUCTION

• Our solar system consists of our star, the Sun, and everything bound to it by
gravity — the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus
and Neptune, dwarf planets such as Pluto, dozens of moons and millions of
asteroids, comets and meteoroids.
MERCURY

• The smallest planet in our solar system and nearest to the Sun, Mercury is
only slightly larger than Earth's Moon
• From the surface of Mercury, the Sun would appear more than three times as
large as it does when viewed from Earth
• The sunlight would be as much as seven times brighter
• Even though it is close to sun, Mercury is not the hottest planet in our solar
system due to thin atmosphere
INTERESTING FACTS

• Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system—only

slightly larger than Earth's Moon
• One day on Mercury (the time it takes for Mercury to rotate or
spin once with respect to the stars) takes 59 Earth days.
Mercury makes a complete orbit around the Sun (a year in
Mercury time) in just 88 Earth days
• Mercury is a rocky planet, also known as a terrestrial planet.
Mercury has a solid, cratered surface, much like the Earth's
moon
INTERESTING FACTS

• Mercury's thin atmosphere, or exosphere, is composed mostly of oxygen (O2), sodium (Na), hydrogen
(H2), helium (He), and potassium (K).
• Mercury has no moons
• There are no rings around Mercury
• No evidence for life has been found on Mercury. Daytime Temperatures can reach 430 degrees Celsius
(800 degrees Fahrenheit) and drop to -180 degrees Celsius (-290 degrees Fahrenheit) at night.
Study Claims Sun
Will Devour Mercury
VENUS

• Second planet from the Sun and our closest planetary neighbor
• Venus is similar in structure and size to Earth
• Venus spins slowly in the opposite direction most planets do
• Its thick atmosphere traps heat in a runaway greenhouse effect, making it
the hottest planet in our solar system—with surface temperatures hot
enough to melt lead
 INTERESTING FACTS
• One day on Venus lasts 243 Earth days because Venus spins backwards, with
its sun rising in the west and setting in the east
• Venus' solid surface is a volcanic landscape covered with extensive plains
featuring high volcanic mountains and vast ridged plateaus
• Venus has no moons and no rings.
• The planet’s surface temperature is about 900 degrees Fahrenheit (465
degrees Celsius)—hot enough to melt lead.
• Many scientists believe water once existed on the surface. Future Venus
explorers will search for evidence of an ancient ocean.
• Venus’ extreme temperatures and acidic clouds make it an unlikely place for
life as we know it
MARS
• The fourth planet from the Sun, Mars is a dusty, cold, desert world with a very thin
atmosphere
• This dynamic planet has seasons, polar ice caps and weather, canyons and extinct
volcanoes
• NASA currently has three spacecraft in orbit, one rover and one lander on the
surface. India and ESA also have spacecraft in orbit above Mars
INTERESTING FACTS

• One day on Mars takes a little over 24 hours. Mars makes a complete orbit around the Sun
(a year in Martian time) in 687 Earth days.
• Mars is a rocky planet. Its solid surface has been altered by volcanoes, impacts, winds,
crustal movement and chemical reactions
• Mars has a thin atmosphere made up mostly of carbon dioxide (CO2), argon (Ar), nitrogen
(N2), and a small amount of oxygen and water vapor
• Mars has two moons named Phobos and Deimos
• At this time, Mars' surface cannot support life as we know it.
• Mars is known as the Red Planet because iron minerals in the Martian soil oxidize, or rust,
causing the soil and atmosphere to look red
Giant storm on Mars
JUPITER

• Jupiter is, by far, the largest planet in the solar system – more than twice as massive as all
the other planets combined
• Jupiter's familiar stripes and swirls are actually cold, windy clouds of ammonia and water,
floating in an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium
• Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot is a giant storm bigger than Earth that has raged for
hundreds of years
• One spacecraft — NASA's Juno orbiter — is currently exploring this giant world.
INTERESTING FACTS

• THE GRANDEST PLANET: Eleven Earths could fit across Jupiter’s equator. If Earth were the size of a
grape, Jupiter would be the size of a basketball.
• Jupiter rotates once about every 10 hours (a Jovian day), but takes about 12 Earth years to complete
one orbit of the Sun (a Jovian year).
• Jupiter is a gas giant and so lacks an Earth-like surface. If it has a solid inner core at all, it’s likely only
about the size of Earth
• Jupiter's atmosphere is made up mostly of hydrogen (H2) and helium (He)
• Jupiter has more than 75 moons
• Nine spacecraft have visited Jupiter. Seven flew by and two have orbited the gas giant. Juno, the most
recent, arrived at Jupiter in 2016
SATURN
• Adorned with thousands of beautiful ringlets, Saturn is unique among the planets
• It is the rings—made of chunks of ice and rock
• Saturn takes about 10.7 hours (no one knows precisely) to rotate on its axis once—a Saturn “day”—and 29
Earth years to orbit the sun.
• Saturn is a gas-giant planet and therefore does not have a solid surface like Earth’s. But it might have a solid
core somewhere in there
• Saturn's atmosphere is made up mostly of hydrogen (H2) and helium (He)
• Saturn has 53 known moons with an additional 29 moons awaiting confirmation of their discovery—that is a
total of 82 moons
• Few missions have visited Saturn: Pioneer 11 and Voyagers 1 and 2 flew by; But Cassini orbited Saturn 294
times from 2004 to 2017
At Saturn's center is a
dense core of metals like
iron and nickel
surrounded by rocky
material and other
compounds solidified by
intense pressure and heat
 URANUS
• Uranus is known as the “sideways planet” because it rotates on its side. Uranus was the first
planet found using a telescope.
• Uranus is an Ice Giant planet and nearly four times larger than Earth. Uranus has 27 known
moons
• Uranus takes about 17 hours to rotate once (a Uranian day), and about 84 Earth years to
complete an orbit of the Sun (a Uranian year).
• Uranus is an ice giant. Most of its mass is a hot, dense fluid of "icy" materials – water, methane
and ammonia – above a small rocky core
• Uranus has an atmosphere made mostly of molecular hydrogen and atomic helium, with a
small amount of methane
• Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to fly by Uranus. No spacecraft has orbited this distant planet
to study it at length and up close.
NEPTUNE

• NASA's Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have visited Neptune up close

• Neptune is about four times wider than Earth. If Earth were a large apple, Neptune would be the size of
a basketball
• Neptune takes about 16 hours to rotate once (a Neptunian day), and about 165 Earth years to orbit the
sun (a Neptunian year)
• Neptune is an ice giant. Most of its mass is a hot, dense fluid of "icy" materials – water, methane and
ammonia – above a small rocky core
• Neptune's atmosphere is made up mostly of molecular hydrogen, atomic helium and methane
• Neptune has 14 known moons which are named after sea gods and nymphs in Greek mythology
PLUTO

• Pluto is only about 1,400 miles wide. At that small size, Pluto is only about half the width of the United
States
• Pluto is about 3.6 billion miles away from the Sun and has five moons(Kuiper Belt)
• Pluto’s atmosphere is thin and composed mostly of nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide
• Pluto have 5 moons and its largest moon, Charon, are so similar in size that they orbit each other like a
double planet system
• On average, Pluto’s temperature is -387°F (-232°C), making it too cold to sustain life, but it does have a
heart-shaped glacier bigger than Texas
PLUTO

• A year on Pluto is 248 Earth years. A day on Pluto lasts 153 hours, or about 6 Earth days
• The only spacecraft to visit Pluto is NASA’s New Horizons, which passed close by in July 2015.
EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE

• Airplanes fly in the earth’s atmosphere and

therefore, it is necessary to know the
properties of this atmosphere
• The earth’s atmosphere is a gaseous blanket
around the earth which is divided into the five
regions based on certain intrinsic features
• Troposphere
• Stratosphere
• Mesosphere
• Ionosphere
• Exosphere
EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE

The troposphere :
• This is the region closest to the earth’s surface. It is
characterized by turbulent conditions of air
• The temperature decreases linearly at an approximate rate
of 6.5 K / km
• The highest point of the troposphere is called tropopause
• The height of the tropopause varies from about 9 km at the
poles to about 16 km at the equator
EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE

The stratosphere :
• This extends from the tropopause to about 50 km
• High velocity winds may be encountered in this region,
but they are not gusty
• Temperature remains constant up to about 25 km and
then increases
• The highest point of the stratosphere is called the
stratopause
EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE

The mesosphere:
• The mesosphere extends from the stratopause to about
80 km
• The temperature decreases to about -900 C in this
region
• In the mesosphere, the pressure and density of air are
very low, but the air still retains its composition as at
sea level
• The highest point of the mesosphere is called the
mesopause
EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE

The ionosphere or thermosphere:

• This region extends from the mesopause to about 1000
km
• It is characterized by the presence of ions and free
electrons
• The temperature increases to about 0 C at 110 km, to
about 1000 C at 150 km and peak of about 1780 C at
700 km
EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE

The exosphere:
• This is the outer fringe of the earth’s atmosphere
• Very few molecules are found in this region
• The region gradually merges into the interplanetary
space
KEPLER'S LAWS
• First Law-The orbit of each planet
is an ellipse, with the sun at a
focus
• Second Law-The line joining the
planet to the sun sweeps out
equal areas in equal times .
• Third Law-The square of the
period o f a planet is proportional
to the cube of its mean distance
from the sun
NEWTON'S LAWS OF MOTION

• First Law-Every body continues in its state of

rest or of uniform motion in a straight line
unless it is compelled to change that state by
forces impressed upon it.
• Second Law-The rate of change of momentum is
proportional to the force impressed and is in
the same direction as that force .
• Third Law-To every action there is always
opposed an equal reaction
NEWTON'S LAWS OF MOTION

• where Summation F is the vector sum of all the forces

acting on the mass m and r is the vector acceleration of
the mass measured relative to an inertial reference
frame
Newton's Law of Universal Gravitation
• Newton formulated the law of gravity by stating that
any two bodies attract one another with a force
proportional to the product of their masses and
inversely proportional to the square of the distance
between them
NEWTON'S LAW OF UNIVERSAL GRAVITATION

• where Fg is the force on mass m due

to mass M and r is the vector from M
to m. The universal gravitational
constant, G, has the value 6.67x 10-8
dyne cm2/gm2
 REQUIREMENTS FOR MOTION IN SPACE
Motion in a rotating frame of reference: centrifugal
force

1. Orbits, Orbital Velocity & Orbital Period

2. Eccentricity & Inclination of Orbits

3. Escape Velocity
 GRAVITATIONAL ESCAPE VELOCITY EQUATION
• In order to overcome the gravitational pull of a planet, moon or
sun, an object must be accelerated to the gravitational escape
velocity for that celestial body at a given altitude above the body's
surface
• You can derive the equation for the gravitational escape velocity
by considering the initial gravitational potential energy at the
given altitude and the initial kinetic energy of the object
• By comparing this total initial energy with the sum of the
potential and kinetic energies at an infinite separation, you can
determine the escape velocity equation.
INTRODUCTION
• Typically, the projected object has a much smaller mass than the
body from which it is escaping, such that the center of mass
between them is located close to the geometric center of the larger
body.
• Instead of both objects moving away from their center of mass, the
smaller object is considered to be moving away from the larger
body
• The equation for the escape velocity can be derived by applying the
Law of Conservation of Energy
• This Law states that the total of the object's potential and kinetic
energy is a constant.
• The escape velocity equation is also a function of the separation
between the centers of the object and the celestial body from
which it is escaping

• The derivation starts with the initial gravitational potential energy

at the given altitude and the initial kinetic energy of the object

• This total initial energy is then compared with the sum of the
potential and kinetic energies at an infinite separation, in order to
determine the escape velocity equation
INITIAL ENERGY OF THE OBJECT

• It is then assumed to be moving freely with only the gravitational

force from the larger object being applied
Initial potential energy

• The gravitational potential energy between two objects at some

separation is defined as the work required to move them from a
zero reference point to that given separation.
INITIAL POTENTIAL ENERGY

where
• PEi is the initial gravitational potential energy in kg-km2/s2
• G is the Universal Gravitational Constant = 6.674*10−20 km3/kg-s2
• M is the mass of the attracting object in kilograms (kg)
• m is the mass of the escaping object in kg
• M is much greater than m (M >> m)
• Ri is the initial separation between the centers of the objects in kilometers
(km)
INITIAL KINETIC ENERGY
• The initial kinetic energy of an object projected at some velocity away from
the Earth or other astronomical body is

where
• KEi is the initial kinetic energy in kg-km2/s2
• m is the mass of the object in kg
• ve is the initial velocity—and thus the escape velocity—in km/s
 TOTAL INITIAL ENERGY

• The total initial energy is the sum of

the potential and kinetic energies at
the release point
FINAL ENERGY

• Gravitational fields hypothetically extend to infinity

• Thus, if the initial velocity is great enough, the object will travel to an infinite separation
and thus "escape" the gravitational force
Potential energy at infinity
• The object's potential energy at an infinite separation or displacement is

where
• PE∞ is the gravitational potential energy at infinity
• R∞ is the infinite separation between the centers of the objects
Since R∞ = ∞ (infinity), then PE∞ = 0
KINETIC ENERGY AT INFINITY

• The object's kinetic energy at an infinite displacement is

where
• KE∞ is the final kinetic energy
• v∞ is the final velocity at an infinite distance
At infinity, the velocity of the object is zero: v∞ = 0. Thus KE∞ = 0
TOTAL FINAL ENERGY

• Since the kinetic energy is moving upward and the potential

energy is acting downward, the total energy at the initial position
is
ESCAPE VELOCITY EQUATION

• The Law of Conservation of Energy states that the total energy of a closed
system remains constant. In this case, the closed system consists of the two
objects with the gravitational force between them and no outside energy or
force affecting either object
• Thus the total final energy—potential energy plus kinetic energy—must equal
the total initial energy
ESCAPE VELOCITY EQUATION
• Substitute values

• Considering our gravitational convention for direction, ve is upward or away from the other object and is
thus negative
ALTITUDE FACTOR

• The equation can also be written considering the initial altitude of the escaping object

where
• r is the radius of the celestial body in km
• h is the altitude or separation from the surface of the body in km
• The altitude factor is necessary since the escaping object must accelerate over some displacement to
reach the escape velocity
 PROBLEM

• The product of earth’s mass and the universal gravitational constant is 3.986 x 1014m3/s2.
the radius of earth is 6371 km. the minimum increment in the velocity to be imparted to a
spacecraft flying in a circular orbit around the earth at an altitude of 4000km to make it
exits earth’s gravitational field is ------ km/s (roundoff to 2 decimal)

• A spacecraft forms a circular orbit at an altitude of 150 km above the surface of a spherical
Earth. Assuming the gravitional parameter, GM = 3.986 x 1014 m3/s2 and radius of earth,
RE = 6400 km, the velocity required for the injection of the spacecraft, parallel to the local
horizon, is -----(accurate to two decimal places)
Giant storm on Neptune