# Orbit¶

Variables of type Orbit hold descriptive information about the elliptical shape of a predicted orbit. Whenever there are multiple patches of orbit ellipses strung together, for example, when an encounter with a body is expected to alter the path, or when a maneuver node is planned, then each individual patch of the path is represented by one Orbit object.

Each Orbitable item such as a Vessel or celestial Body has an :ORBIT suffix that can be used to obtain its current Orbit.

Whenever you get the Orbit of a Vessel, be aware that its just the current Orbit patch that doesn’t take into account any planetary encounters (slingshots) or maneuver nodes that may occur. For example, your vessel might never reach SHIP:ORBIT:APOAPSIS if you’re going to intersect the Mun and be flung by it into a new orbit.

## Creation¶

It is possible to make an :structOrbit object without it coming from either a Vessel or a Body. This could be useful when you want to be able to get information about a hypothetical orbit that an object may someday end up in, even when its not in that orbit now. One case where this may be useful is when trying to place a satellite into a desired final orbit (say to fufill a contract). You may wish to see some information about that destination orbit even though no particular objects are in that orbit at the moment. To do this you can create an :structOrbit object using the CREATEORBIT() function described below. You pass in the Keplerian parameters that define the orbit (which are typically the values you will see on a contract parameter for putting satellites into desired orbits), and the orbit object you make can then be queried for things like its apoapsis, periapsis, etc.

CREATEORBIT(inc, e, sma, lan, argPe, mEp, t, body)
Parameters: inc – (scalar) inclination e – (scalar) eccentricity sma – (scalar) semi-major axis lan – (scalar) longitude of ascending node argPe – (scalar) argument of periapsis mEp – (scalar) mean anomaly at epoch t – (scalar) epoch body – (Body) body to orbit around Orbit

This creates a new orbit around the Mun:

SET myOrbit TO CREATEORBIT(0, 0, 270000, 0, 0, 0, 0, Mun).


Warning

Some of the parameters listed here come directly from KSP’s API and there is a bit of inconsistency with whether it uses radians or degrees for angles. As much as possible we have tried to present everything in kOS as degrees for consistency, but some of these may have slipped through. If you see any of these being reported in radians, please make a bug report.

## Structure¶

structure Orbit
Members
Suffix Type (units) Description
NAME String name of this orbit
APOAPSIS Scalar (m) Maximum altitude
PERIAPSIS Scalar (m) Minimum altitude
BODY Body Focal body of orbit
PERIOD Scalar (s) orbital period
INCLINATION Scalar (deg) orbital inclination
ECCENTRICITY Scalar orbital eccentricity
SEMIMAJORAXIS Scalar (m) semi-major axis
SEMIMINORAXIS Scalar (m) semi-minor axis
LAN Scalar (deg) Same as LONGITUDEOFASCENDINGNODE
LONGITUDEOFASCENDINGNODE Scalar (deg) Longitude of the ascending node
ARGUMENTOFPERIAPSIS Scalar argument of periapsis
TRUEANOMALY Scalar true anomaly in degrees (not radians)
MEANANOMALYATEPOCH Scalar mean anomaly in degrees (not radians) at a specific fixed time called EPOCH
EPOCH Scalar The universal timestamp at which MEANANOMALYATEPOCH is measured.
TRANSITION String Transition from this orbit
POSITION Vector The current position
VELOCITY OrbitableVelocity The current velocity
NEXTPATCH Orbit Next Orbit
NEXTPATCHETA Scalar ETA to next Orbit
HASNEXTPATCH Boolean Has a next Orbit
Orbit:NAME
Type: String Get only

a name for this orbit.

Orbit:APOAPSIS
Type: Scalar (m) Get only

The max altitude expected to be reached.

Orbit:PERIAPSIS
Type: Scalar (m) Get only

The min altitude expected to be reached.

Orbit:BODY
Type: Body Get only

The celestial body this orbit is orbiting.

Orbit:PERIOD
Type: Scalar (seconds) Get only

orbital period

Orbit:INCLINATION
Type: Scalar (degree) Get only

orbital inclination

Orbit:ECCENTRICITY
Type: Scalar Get only

orbital eccentricity

Orbit:SEMIMAJORAXIS
Type: Scalar (m) Get only

semi-major axis

Orbit:SEMIMINORAXIS
Type: Scalar (m) Get only

semi-minor axis

Orbit:LAN
Orbit:LONGITUDEOFASCENDINGNODE
Type: Scalar (deg) Get only

The Longitude of the ascening node is the “celestial longitude” where the orbit crosses the body’s equator from its southern hemisphere to its northern hemisphere

Note that the “celestial longitude” in this case is NOT the planetary longitude of the orbit body. “Celestial longitudes” are expressed as the angle from the Solar Prime Vector, not from the body’s longitude. In order to find out where it is relative to the body’s longitude, you will have to take into account body:rotationangle, and take into account that the body will rotate by the time you get there.

Orbit:ARGUMENTOFPERIAPSIS
Type: Scalar Get only

argument of periapsis

Orbit:TRUEANOMALY
Type: Scalar Get only

true anomaly in degrees. Even though orbital parameters are traditionally done in radians, in keeping with the kOS standard of making everything into degrees, they are given as degrees by kOS.

Closed versus Open orbits clamp this differently: The range of possible values this can have differs depending on if the orbit is “closed” (elliptical, eccentricity < 1.0) versus “open” (parabolic or hyperbolic, eccentricity >= 1.0). If the orbit is closed, then this value will be in the range [0..360), where values larger than 180 represent positions in the orbit where it is “coming down” from apoapsis to periapsis. But if the orbit is open, then this value will be in the range (-180..180), where negative values are used to represent the positions in the orbit where it is “coming down” to the periapsis. The difference is because it does not make sense to speak of the orbit looping all the way around 360 degrees in the case of an open orbit where it does not come back down.

Note that the above switch between 0..360 versus -180..180 happens when the orbit is mathematically shown to be an escaping orbit, NOT when it’s still an ellipse but the apoapsis happens to be higher than the body’s sphere of influence so the game will let it escape anyway. Both conditions look similar on the game map so it may be hard to tell them apart without actually querying the eccentricity to find out which it is.

Orbit:MEANANOMALYATEPOCH
Type: Scalar degrees Get only

mean anomaly in degrees. Even though orbital parameters are traditionally done in radians, in keeping with the kOS standard of making everything into degrees, they are given as degrees by kOS.

Internally, KSP tracks orbit position using MEANANOMALYATEPOCH and EPOCH. “Epoch” is an arbitrary timestamp expressed in universal time (gameworld seconds from game start, same as TIME:SECONDS uses) at which the mean anomaly of the orbit would be MEANANOMALYATEPOCH.

Given the mean anomaly at epoch, and the epoch time, and the current time, and the orbital period, it’s possible to find out the current mean anomaly. Kerbal Space Program uses this internally to track orbit positions while under time warp without using the full physics system.

Closed versus Open orbits clamp this differently: The range of possible values this can have differs depending on if the orbit is “closed” (elliptical, eccentricity < 1.0) versus “open” (parabolic or hyperbolic, eccentricity >= 1.0). If the orbit is closed, then this value will be in the range [0..360), where values larger than 180 represent positions in the orbit where it is “coming back down” from apoapsis to periapsis. But if the orbit is open, then this value doesn’t have any limits, and furthermore negative values are used to represent the portion of the orbit that is “coming down” to the periapsis, rather than using values > 180 for this.

Note that the above switch between MEANANOMALY behaving in the “closed” versus “open” way depends on the orbit being mathematically shown to be an escaping orbit, NOT merely “escaping” because it has an apoapsis higher than the body’s sphere of influence. If the orbit’s mathematical parameters show it to be an ellipse, but its apoapsis is higher than the body’s sphere of influence, then the game will let it escape anyway despite it still being an elliptical orbit. (It’s just an elliptical orbit with the top “cut off”.) The MEANANOMALY measurement will treat such elliptical-but-escaping-anyway scenarios as “closed” even though they don’t look like it on the map.

Orbit:EPOCH
Type: Scalar universal timestamp (seconds) Get only

Internally, KSP tracks orbit position using MEANANOMALYATEPOCH and EPOCH. “Epoch” is an arbitrary timestamp expressed in universal time (gameworld seconds from game start, same as TIME:SECONDS uses) at which the mean anomaly of the orbit would be MEANANOMALYATEPOCH.

Beware, if you are an experienced programmer, you may be aware of the word “Epoch” being used to mean a fixed point in time that never ever changes throughout an entire system. For example, the Unix timestamp system refers to Jan 1, 1970 as the “epoch”. This is NOT how the word is used in KSP’s orbit system. In Kerbal Space Program, the “epoch” is not a true “epoch”, in that it often moves and you have to re-check what it is. It’s not a hardcoded constant.

(The epoch timestamp seems to change when you go on or off from time warp.)

Orbit:TRANSITION
Type: String Get only

Describes the way in which this orbit will end and become a different orbit, with a value taken from this list.

Orbit:POSITION
Type: Vector Get only

The current position of whatever the object is that is in this orbit.

Orbit:VELOCITY
Type: OrbitableVelocity Get only

The current velocity of whatever the object is that is in this orbit. Be aware that this is not just a velocity vector, but a structure containing both the orbital and surface velocity vectors as a pair. (See OrbitableVelocity).

Orbit:NEXTPATCH
Type: Orbit Get only

When this orbit has a transition to another orbit coming up, this suffix returns the next Orbit patch after this one. For example, when escaping from a Mun orbit into a Kerbin orbit from which you will escape and hit a Solar orbit, then the current orbit’s :NEXTPATCH will show the Kerbin orbit, and :NEXTPATCH:NEXTPATCH will show the solar orbit. The number of patches into the future that you can peek depends on your conic patches setting in your Kerbal Space Program Settings.cfg file.

Orbit:NEXTPATCHETA
Type: Scalar Get only

When this orbit has a transition to another orbit coming up, this suffix returns the eta to that transition. This is different from the value provided by the ETA:TRANSITION suffix as it is not limited to the patch following the current orbit, but rather may be chained to multiple patch transitions. The number of patches depends on your conic patches setting in your Kerbal Space Program Settings.cfg file.

Orbit:HASNEXTPATCH
Type: Boolean Get only

If :NEXTPATCH will return a valid patch, this is true. If :NEXTPATCH will not return a valid patch because there are no transitions occurring in the future, then HASNEXTPATCH <Orbit:HASNEXTPATCH will be false.

Both NEXTPATCH and HASNEXTPATCH both only operate on the current momentum of the object, and do not take into account any potential changes planned with maneuver nodes. To see the possible new path you would have if a maneuver node gets executed exactly as planned, you need to first get the orbit that follows the manuever node, by looking at the maneuver node’s :ORBIT suffix, and then look at its :NEXTPATCH and :HASNEXTPATCH.

## Deprecated Suffix¶

Orbit:PATCHES
Type: List of Orbit Objects Get only Note Deprecated since version 0.15: To get the same functionality, you must use Vessel:PATCHES which is a suffix of the Vessel itself.

## Transition Names¶

INITIAL
Refers to the pure of a new orbit, which is a value you will never see from the Orbit:TRANSITION suffix (it refers to the start of the orbit patch, and Orbit:TRANSITION only refers to the end of the patch.
FINAL
Means that no transition to a new orbit is expected. It this orbit is the orbit that will remain forever.
ENCOUNTER
Means that this orbit will enter a new SOI of another orbital body that is smaller in scope and is “inside” the current one. (example: currently in Sun orbit, will enter Duna Orbit.)
ESCAPE
Means that this orbit will enter a new SOI of another orbital body that is larger in scope and is “outside” the current one. (example: currently in Kerbin orbit, will enter Sun Orbit.)
MANEUVER
Means that this orbit will end due to a manuever node that starts a new orbit?