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[i]The computation of the actual orbit elements of LM 4 was done in a three- step process. From technical references about the Apollo program there is enough information to calculate the delta v of the LM. "Snoopy" didn't land on the moon, so most of the propellant of the ascent engine wasn't yet needed when Mission Control fired it at May 23, 1969 at 6:07 UT. The engine ran until burnout. Delta v can be calculated to 1150 m/s. [list=1][*]Under the assumption the LM accelerated parallel to the orbital tangent, the delta v adds to the circular velocity of Apollo around the moon (note the Apollo orbits were retrograd). By this, an escape hyperbola and its asymptotic velocity and angle can be calculated. Snoopy left the moon's gravity well at 1336 m/s and an angle of 58.5 deg against the orbit tangent/moon center. [*]By a vector addition of the moon's orbital speed one gets the LM's trajectory in a geocentric coordinate system, and doing the same procedure as above for earth again one has the LM's velocity vector with respect to sun center. [*]Now I had a point in space (vincinity of the moon) and a velocity vector at a certain time (May 23, 1969, 6:00). It was now possible to calculate the elements of a sun orbit by means of common formulas of celestial mechanics [10].[/list] Nevertheless some fine adjustments in the .ssc file had to be done - I also desire the LM to be in the vincinity of the moon on May 23, 1969 but obviously some of the assumptions I made were only rough approximations of what really happened. So please note the calculated orbit is only a rough approximation of where "Snoopy" would be located really today - despite of any bugs in the calculation I might have done.[/i]
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