This unit introduces students to some general concepts of astronomy. Topics include geocentric versus heliocentric theories of the solar system and how they explain the sun's movements, sidereal days versus solar days,...

Created by David P. Stern, this set of three web pages provides a calculation of paths, times, and distances for a flight to Mars and back. The author uses a Hohmann transfer ellipse between two circular orbits. This is...

This is a set of 7 illustrated web pages discussing Kepler's laws. Included are equations and properties of conic sections, the scale of the solar system, the energy equation for Keplerian motion, Newton's "Universal...

This web page, authored and curated by David P. Stern, provides the lecture notes for an overview of Kepler's laws. A section is devoted to each of Kepler's three most prominent theories. It includes historical notes...

This website, authored and curated by David P. Stern, provides teachers with lesson plans of astronomy, Newtonian mechanics and spaceflight such as Newton's theory of universal gravitation and Kepler's third law. Lesson...