12.1 Introduction
Determining orbits from measurements has been done for hundreds of years. The general approach is to take a series of measurements of the object from the ground. This is a set of angles at different times. Given the location on the Earth, and this set of data, one can reconstruct the orbit. Ideal orbits, which make the assumption that the Earth’s gravity is a point at the center of the Earth, are conic sections. Those that stay near the Earth are ellipses. These can be defined as a set of ...
