orbitave

Orbitave is a term used in discussions of orbital mechanics to describe a proposed, non-standard metric for summarizing the properties of an orbital trajectory over a full revolution. The name blends orbit with average and is not part of formal celestial mechanics; definitions and implementations vary across sources. In general, orbitave is intended to provide a single representative value when comparing orbits that differ in shape, size, or perturbations.

There are several common interpretations of orbitave. A radius-based variant would compute the time-averaged distance from the central body over one period, while a velocity-based variant would average the instantaneous orbital speed. A energy-based variant could average the specific orbital energy, though in an ideal two-body model the energy is constant and perturbations are what give rise to a nontrivial average. Practically, the choice of variant depends on the analysis objective, and there is no universally adopted definition.

History and usage: Orbitave is not a formal standard in aerospace engineering or astronomy. It appears primarily in educational contexts, exploratory simulations, and some online discussions as a conceptual tool to simplify comparisons of complex or perturbed orbits. It is typically regarded as a heuristic rather than a rigorously defined quantity. See also: orbital elements, mean anomaly, mean motion, specific orbital energy.