The destiny of humanity is among the stars. Space industries such as asteroid mining could become the world's largest industries with annual profits in the billions of dollars within our lifetimes. For any type of travel or work to be possible in space, an understanding of orbital mechanics is crucial. In space, all objects orbit something. Both artificial and natural satellites orbit planets and moons. Moons orbit planets. Planets orbit stars, and stars orbit the centers of galaxies. An orbit is the elliptical path followed by an object when affected by gravitation. Basically, this means that the gravity of a large object such as a planet pulls a smaller object, such as an asteroid, towards it and as a result, the asteroid circles around it. Why do orbiting objects rotate around the body they are orbiting instead of just falling into it? The satellites do indeed fall into the bodies they are rotating over, but they are moving at such a high speed that they miss the object and are drawn into an ellipse. To do this, objects must move extremely quickly. An object in low Earth orbit must move extremely quickly. The equation to find the orbital velocity is v_orbit=√(rg_orbit) which means that the orbital velocity is equal to the square root of the orbital radius times the acceleration of gravity in that orbit. All systems with an object moving in a uniform circular motion have two basic parts: a satellite velocity in a straight line and a centripetal force pulling the linear velocity vector in a circle. The International Space Station orbits at an altitude of 460 km and has an orbital speed of 7.7 km/s. This is roughly equivalent to the length of the Mackinac Bridge in one second. It is often wrongly believed that there is no gravity in space. In fact, there is a gr... middle of paper...... If it were steeper, the crew would be crushed by G forces. This represents an error window of only 2.4 degrees . In addition to the danger associated with the required precision, there is also the risk that the spacecraft has been weakened during the mission and will be torn apart by the intense deceleration. Or the heat shield could have been damaged and the spacecraft could burn. Orbital mechanics can seem a little overwhelming at first. This may seem counterintuitive and sometimes downright insane. I haven't even touched on the intense mathematics involved in calculating the exact angles and timing in which maneuvers must take place. Or, the net result of each move affects the calculations of an entire mission. After all, it's rocket science. However, if we are to move forward as a species and expand from the fragile ball of Earth, this is a skill we must master..