Science & engineering
Coplanar Hohmann transfer
Compare ideal tangential impulses and coast time between two circular orbits.
A clear answer. Here’s how.
Uses a half-ellipse with semimajor axis (r₁+r₂)/2 and two instantaneous coplanar tangential burns. Signed impulses indicate prograde/retrograde changes; total delta-v adds their magnitudes. Coast time is half the transfer-ellipse period. Equal radii give zero burn and zero transfer time. Ignores plane changes, finite burns, atmosphere, rendezvous phasing and multi-body effects.
See a worked example
Worked example
A fixed demonstration, separate from the values you enter above.
- Initial orbital radius (km)
- 7000
- Final orbital radius (km)
- 14000
- Central gravitational parameter μ (km³/s²)
- 398600.4418
Example result
- First tangential impulse (km/s)
- 1.16737850662
- Second tangential impulse (km/s)
- 0.979149554267
- Total delta-v magnitude (km/s)
- 2.14652806089
- Transfer coast time (s)
- 5,353.83439487
- Transfer semimajor axis (km)
- 10,500