EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Students)

Lincoln Bland and JJ Hoots Class B

7th Grade Science

EarthKAM Pictures

• Libya around the Gulf of Sitre or the Sea Mediterranean

EarthKAM Pictures

• British Columbia, Canada taken over the Rocky Mountains

Group Picture• It is a Picture in Chile tooken over the night skys were the clouds are

forming in many variations of patterns and colors

How to Describe an Orbit

There are six Classical Orbital Elements that are necessary to tell us all we need to know about an orbit and a satellite’s place in it. These elements help us describe orbit size, orbit shape, orbit orientation, and orbit location. An orbit is a curved path, usually elliptical, described by a planet, satellite, spaceship, etc., around a celestial body, as the sun or earth in this case.

Defining the Classical Orbital Elements

• The six Classical Orbital Elements allow us to describe what an orbit looks like. The size, the shape, how far it is, and how wide it is. Examples are like Eccenticity and it explains the shape of an orbit and is given by the ratio of the distance between the two foci and the length of the major axis. Another example is Inclination and it is the angle between the plane of the equator and the orbit plane. As shown in the image above

Works Cited

"Orbital Mechanics." EarthKAM. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2011.

<earthkam.ucsd.edu/students/students_orbital_mechanics#field_of_view>.