Real satellite orbits are not the perfect Keplerian ellipses of textbooks. Earth's oblateness, solar radiation pressure, atmospheric drag, and third-body gravity continuously alter every orbit. How satellites detect, model, and correct these perturbations — and what it costs in propellant.
Lagrange points are positions where a small body can orbit in sync with two larger masses. Why L1, L2, and L3 are unstable but useful, why L4 and L5 are stable and ancient, and what JWST's halo orbit at L2 costs to maintain.
Over 36,000 tracked objects orbit Earth at speeds that make a centimetre of debris as lethal as a hand grenade. Donald Kessler's 1978 cascade model, the current LEO situation, and why remediation may already be urgent.
How do spacecraft reach the outer planets without carrying impossible amounts of fuel? The physics of Hohmann transfers, gravity assists, and the Oberth effect — why orbital mechanics is the art of doing more with less.
How does the thermosphere affect LEO satellites? From atmospheric drag to GNSS disruption — and the 2022 Starlink incident that made the stakes impossible to ignore.