Orbital plane change - Question

[Skyfox42]

Hello everyone,
My question is the following: To succeed an orbital plane change in 'Orbiter' one starts the burn at AN or DN and when stopping the burn the plane changing movement stops as well.

In real life, why does the movement stop and does not need to be cancelled out by firing the thrusters in the opposite direction?

Hope anyone can help me there.
Thanks already a lot. :tiphat:
Skyfox42

 

[PeterRoss]

Because movement doesn't stops, it's vector of speed what you were changing by such correction burn. You've just added vector which is perpendicular to your speed vector before the burn. But you have applied acceleration and your movement direction have changed. If you'll fire retro thrusters, you'll apply opposite acceleration and your movement direction will change back.

Welcome to O-F :tiphat:

 

[Tommy]

Changing the orbital plane requires energy. When you stop applying energy, the plane stops changing. Much the same as in a car, when the wheels are returned to straight (imparting no more energy into turning" the car stops turning, you don't need to turn the wheels to the left (past center) to stop turning right.

 

[tori]

In space you're one integration higher than when standing on the ground, so to speak ) so what you're thinking of as position (the orbital plane) is actually your velocity, or at least velocity direction, and what you call movement is actually acceleration - that's why it stops as soon as you're done firing thrusters.

The drawing attached illustrates a simple plane change maneuver. Solid arrows represent velocity vectors (VV), dashed arrows are accelerations (thrusting directions). The ship starts in the red state. By thrusting at 90° to the VV it doesn't increase its forward velocity, it only changes the direction of that velocity. Once the maneuver is done the ship finds itself in the yellow state. VV magnitudes are the same, the only difference are the directions. As a consequence of that the trajectory is also different.