Saturn coorbitals
Saturn coorbitals
I noticed that the Saturn co-orbitals Janus & Epimethus do not "swap" orbits but simply remain on opposite sides of Saturn and thus except for a short time every 4 years are in the wrong position.
- FarGetaNik
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The orbits for these moons are defined by simple ellicptical orbits. The effect of them swapping orbits every 4 years is due to gravitational perturbation that is not taken into account.
You could use eiher a sampled orbit definition or better a spice orbit definition to show their long term behaviour. Look at this topic on Celestial Matters for more information:
http://forum.celestialmatters.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=584
You could use eiher a sampled orbit definition or better a spice orbit definition to show their long term behaviour. Look at this topic on Celestial Matters for more information:
http://forum.celestialmatters.org/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=584
saturn coorbitals
The add ons for spacecraft allow an object to have multiple orbits at different times. I assume the same means could give each of the co-orbitals an "inner" and an "outer" orbit by changing the semi-major axes on Jan 21 of each even numbered non leap year. It wouldn't be precisely correct as the swap would be an instant jump of a few km rather than the gradual change but would put them close enough to the actual positions so the Cassini flybys would actually happen.
Celestia also has the feature called "ScriptedOrbit". If you understand the orbital dynamics, in principle you can write a Lua function which will move the moons around appropriately.
See https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Celestia/Trajectories#ScriptedOrbit
See https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Celestia/Trajectories#ScriptedOrbit
Selden