Kepler's Orbital Mechanics

Released: May 9, 2026 8:00 AM CST

Here is the fortieth episode of Quantum Foam, Kepler's Orbital Mechanics. The mechanics for orbits around the Earth is what is important for this episode. The Space Engineering podcast is worth checking out. There are pretty good visuals involved. Also, there is good Calculus material under Patrick JMT out of Austin, Texas. Johannes Kepler was a German Astronomer who formulated the 3 laws of planetary motion. His work laid the modern foundation for Astronomy. Galileo Galilei used a telescope to view the heavens and helped to determine the heliocentric model of the solar system. Tycho Brahe was an Astronomer around the same time. He collected many astronomical readings. Kepler was his assistant. The important thing is that orbits are ellipses, not circles. Eccentricity measures how far off an astronomical body is from a circle. A value of 0 is a perfect circle. Kepler published his work in 1609 and 1619. This was his magnum opus. Astronomia Nova and Harmonice Mundi, respectively. He laid the first 2 laws out in the first publication and the third law in the second publication. The First Law Of Planetary Motion is each orbit is an ellipse and not a circle. The Second Law Of Planetary Motion is that orbiting planets make out even sweeps. This means equal areas of space in equal time intervals. There is Perihelion and Aphelion to consider. Perihelion is when ball 2 is closest to ball 1 in its orbit. Aphelion is when ball 2 is furthest away from ball 1 in its orbit. The gravitational force is what causes celestial bodies to move in elliptical paths around the sun. The Third Law Of Planetary Motion is p squared equals a cubed. P is in years and a is astronomical units. The International Space Station is usually 250 miles above the Earth. If you are making an orbit with the center of the Earth and the ISS, then ball 1 is the Earth and ball 2 is the ISS. The ISS is currently going around at 17,500 miles per hour. It orbits the Earth every 90 minutes. We are looking at orbital mechanics.

Earth's orbit varies only about 2 percent. It isn't a circle. Mercury's orbit varies about 40 percent. First, there are the Three Laws Of Planetary Motion, and then there are the Three Laws Of Motion. Tycho Brahe took diligent notes looking up in the night sky for many months. There are now many thousands of spacecraft in our night sky looking down at us. What does it take to get a good cup of coffee in this solar system? We can create Artificial Intelligence instances that are simulations using binary programming. The inclination is the measurement of the orbit relative to the Earth's equator. The Earth is spinning around and has a plane that is spinning around above the equator. Directly above the equator has an inclination of 0. There is a sweet spot in High Earth Orbit at about 36,000 kilometers away from the surface of the Earth called Geosynchronous Orbit. There are different satellite constellations that have specific functions. There are TV, telecommunication, and defense satellites orbiting Earth. We understand how all of these satellites orbit in elliptical orbits. Low eccentricity means that the orbit is close to a circle. Gamma-ray bursts have been detected equaling around 100 teraelectronvolts. The many Starlink satellites in orbit all compound upon one another and can add wattage to a position on the surface of the Earth. Keplerian elements describe the trajectory of the spacecraft. These satellites are spacecraft. We are interested in the Angular Momentum when dealing with these objects that orbit the Earth. The eccentricity is basically the shape of the orbit. The inclination is the angle of the orbit relative to the Earth's equator. Starlink uses the ka-band and the ku-band. There are other bands such as the v-band, the x-band, the k-band, and the w-band. These bands span from 12 Gigahertz to 110 Gigahertz. The Starlink routers may use a different band for communicating from device to device as opposed to the band that the router itself uses to communicate with the satellites in orbit. Starlink satellites connect to human brains as a thinking individual. They also can watch us through walls using graphics. It is calculated using a microwave system. There are things that are in-the-mind that are concerning. As of this writing, Starlink is not advertising these neural capabilities. There is definitely a system in place being used.