Home▸Space & Astronomy▸Orbital Mechanics — Kepler Orbit & Vis-Viva (2D)

Orbital Mechanics — Kepler Orbit & Vis-Viva (2D)

Top-down 2D companion: drag semi-major axis, eccentricity and argument of periapsis, watch the analytic two-body Kepler solution trace the ellipse frame by frame, and read live vis-viva speed, period, apoapsis and periapsis.

Space & Astronomy2DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version

This top-down 2D companion drives the same analytic two-body Kepler solution as the 3D gravity-assist version: dragging semi-major axis, eccentricity or argument of periapsis rebuilds the ellipse instantly, while each frame the mean anomaly advances at a constant rate and eight Newton–Raphson iterations solve Kepler's equation for the eccentric anomaly, so the satellite's position, vis-viva speed, period, apoapsis and periapsis are all recomputed live rather than looked up from a table.

⚙ Under the hood

A flat, top-down Kepler-orbit lab: drag a, e and ω, fire a simplified prograde burn, and read live vis-viva speed, orbital period, apoapsis and periapsis computed from the closed-form two-body solution every frame.

orbital mechanicskepler orbitvis-viva equationeccentric anomalyapoapsis periapsisorbital period

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install