Need help with exact orientation of planet

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Topic author
Guckytos
Posts: 439
Joined: 01.06.2004
With us: 20 years 5 months
Location: Germany

Need help with exact orientation of planet

Post #1by Guckytos » 05.02.2005, 15:21

Hi there,

what i want to do is: position a planet in that way that its northpole is always pointing into the direction of the sun and thus it is rolling on its orbital plane.

Now i have read the ssc-guide again, thought about what i read, treid out what i thought was the right commmands ... and miserably failed. I seem to have missed something there.

The commands that i need to do what i want are: AscendigNode, Obliquity and EquatorAscendingNode. Or did i forget one?? And how do AscendingNode and EquatorAscendingNode work then together??

A slightly confused,

Guckytos

BTW: I was once able to put the planet with the northpole to the sun, but when i accelerated time, the northpole started to move out.

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selden
Developer
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Location: NY, USA

Post #2by selden » 05.02.2005, 21:21

Normally the rotational axis of a spinning object stays pointing in the same direction relative to the "fixed stars". That's called "conservation of angular momentum." Some force external to the planet would be needed to cause its axis to change directions.

I think you need to use PrecessionRate to cause the orientation of the rotational axis to change directions, in this case so that it always points toward the sun.
Selden


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