NKTgLaw

NKTgLaw

Building a Computational Model of Planetary Motion (NKTg) and Validating It with NASA Mercury Data

1. Problem Statement

Can planetary motion be simulated using only fundamental quantities such as:

  • Position (x)

  • Velocity (v)

  • Mass (m)

without explicitly using force equations?

This post presents a computational implementation of the NKTg model, where orbital velocity is derived from a target constant:

NKTg₁ = x × p
where p = m × v

The model is validated using publicly available data from NASA JPL Horizons for Mercury.


2. Reference Dataset (NASA 2024)

Actual orbital data of Mercury in 2024:

Date x (m) v (m/s) m (kg) p = m·v
1/1/2024 5.16E+10 5.33E+04 3.30E+23 1.76E+28
4/1/2024 6.97E+10 3.90E+04 3.30E+23 1.29E+28
7/1/2024 5.36E+10 5.20E+04 3.30E+23 1.72E+28
10/1/2024 6.95E+10 3.92E+04 3.30E+23 1.30E+28
12/31/2024 4.64E+10 5.81E+04 3.30E+23 1.92E+28

From this dataset, the target constant is established:

NKTg₁ = 8.90E+38 NKTm


3. Model Definition

Given:

  • x (orbital position)

  • m (mass)

  • Target constant NKTg₁

We compute:

p=NKTg1xp = \frac{NKTg₁}{x}p=xNKTg1​​v=pmv = \frac{p}{m}v=mp​

No force expressions are used in the computation.

The model also integrates mass variation:

dm/dt = -0.5 kg/s

This produces:

NKTg2=(dm/dt)×pNKTg₂ = (dm/dt) × pNKTg2​=(dm/dt)×p

which remains negative throughout the orbit.


4. 2025 Simulation (NKTg Model)

Date x (m) v (m/s) m (kg) p = m·v
1/1/2025 5.16E+10 5.22E+04 3.301E+23 1.72E+28
4/1/2025 6.97E+10 3.87E+04 3.301E+23 1.28E+28
7/1/2025 5.49E+10 4.91E+04 3.301E+23 1.62E+28
10/1/2025 6.83E+10 3.95E+04 3.301E+23 1.30E+28
12/31/2025 4.61E+10 5.85E+04 3.301E+23 1.93E+28

5. Actual NASA Data (2025)

Date x (m) v (m/s) m (kg)
1/1/2025 5.16E+10 5.34E+04 3.30E+23
4/1/2025 6.97E+10 3.89E+04 3.30E+23
7/1/2025 5.49E+10 5.04E+04 3.30E+23
1/10/2025 6.83E+10 3.98E+04 3.30E+23
12/31/2025 4.61E+10 5.89E+04 3.30E+23

6. Numerical Comparison

Date v – NKTg v – NASA Relative Error (%)
1/1/2025 5.22E+04 53400 -2.15461
4/1/2025 3.87E+04 38900 -0.562786
7/1/2025 4.91E+04 50400 -2.561981
1/10/2025 3.95E+04 39800 -0.819213
12/31/2025 5.85E+04 58900 -0.707806

Average relative error: 1.3%


7. Observations from a Computational Perspective

  • The system is fully defined by interaction between x, v, and m.

  • No force expressions are required in the computation process.

  • The model is deterministic and reproducible across platforms.

  • Error remains within ~1.3% compared to NASA JPL data.


8. Discussion

From a software engineering perspective, this approach represents:

  • A constant-driven orbital simulation model.

  • A reduced-parameter dynamical system.

  • A reproducible computational experiment based on publicly available data.

The implementation can be reproduced in any language supporting floating-point arithmetic.


If anyone is interested, I can share a minimal reproducible implementation (Python / C++ / Go) for benchmarking and independent validation.

Where Next?

Popular General Dev topics Top

AstonJ
If you had the ear of a language creator, what would you say - what could they do to make a language that you would use? :upside_down_face:
New
AstonJ
I just watched this: (tldr: remove bad choices so you don’t need to use willpower) It got me thinking about ways to incre...
New
AstonJ
Which apps do you think are killing it right now? Either from a technical perspective or ones that you like personally or feel have been...
New
AstonJ
If so, what was the last blog post you wrote… and if not, why not?
New
AstonJ
Looking at @siddhant3030’s photo from the Do you blog? thread, do you cover your computer or phone camera as a security precaution? Wha...
New
jaywengrow
Hello! It’s Jay Wengrow, author of A Common-Sense Guide to Data Structures and Algorithms. My book now has a supplemental website, where ...
New
finner
One of my 2021 resolutions is to read more tech books. As part of this effort I purchased two MEAPs (Manning Early Access Program) which...
New
jamiedumont
This is all going to be a bit hand-wavey and straight off the top of my head, so bear with me, but it’s a thought/debate that’s been ratt...
New
dwaynebradley
In their weekly newsletter, Jared Santo from the Changelog shared this blog post by Mark Ericksen over at fly.io: What is really inter...
New
AstonJ
Chris Seaton, the creator of TruffleRuby has died. It appears from suicide :cry: He left this note on Twitter on the weekend: And one...
New

Other popular topics Top

Devtalk
Reading something? Working on something? Planning something? Changing jobs even!? If you’re up for sharing, please let us know what you’...
1052 22283 402
New
AstonJ
If it’s a mechanical keyboard, which switches do you have? Would you recommend it? Why? What will your next keyboard be? Pics always w...
New
ohm
Which, if any, games do you play? On what platform? I just bought (and completed) Minecraft Dungeons for my Nintendo Switch. Other than ...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Learn different ways of writing concurrent code in Elixir and increase your application's performance, without sacrificing scalability or...
New
rustkas
Intensively researching Erlang books and additional resources on it, I have found that the topic of using Regular Expressions is either c...
New
foxtrottwist
A few weeks ago I started using Warp a terminal written in rust. Though in it’s current state of development there are a few caveats (tab...
New
AstonJ
We’ve talked about his book briefly here but it is quickly becoming obsolete - so he’s decided to create a series of 7 podcasts, the firs...
New
husaindevelop
Inside our android webview app, we are trying to paste the copied content from another app eg (notes) using navigator.clipboard.readtext ...
New
Fl4m3Ph03n1x
Background Lately I am in a quest to find a good quality TTS ai generation tool to run locally in order to create audio for some videos I...
New
PragmaticBookshelf
Use advanced functional programming principles, practical Domain-Driven Design techniques, and production-ready Elixir code to build scal...
New