Path: Interplanetary/Optimization
% Find the best departure date for TrajectoryBetweenTwoPlanets
This will scan for one orbit of the departure planet (one of it's years)
and find date with the best geometry given the desired duration. This is
when the relative distance between the planets at the arrival date is the
greatest, i.e. opposing sides of the orbits. This is most suitable for
planets far from Earth where the trajectory approaches a straight line.
For the struct form of planet2, this will calculate updated orbital
elements for the new epoch using the gravitational parameter of the sun.
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Form:
[jD,planet2] = FindDepartureDate( jD0, planet1, planet2, years )
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Inputs
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jD0 (1,1) Start Julian Date
planet1 (1,1) Id of departure planet (1-9)
planet2 (1,1) Id of arrival planet (1-9) or data structure
.name (1,:) Name
.el (1,6) Orbital elements - epoch must be jD0
years (1,1) Mission duration (years)
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Outputs
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jD (1,1) Updated Julian Date
planet2 (.) If planet2 is a structure, updated elements
.name (1,:) Name
.el (1,6) Orbital elements - new epoch of jD
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Interplanetary: Ephemeris/PlanetPosJPL Orbit: OrbitMechanics/RVOrbGen SC: Ephem/PlanetYear Common: Database/Constant Common: Time/Date2JD Common: Time/JDToDateString Math: Linear/Mag
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