卫星星座与编队飞行问题综述

卫星应用的日益发展需要由多颗卫星组成的卫星系统(形成各种类型的星座)来替代单颗卫星，这就给卫星轨道力学的应用增加了一些新内容。重点阐述了卫星星座整体结构的演化、卫星星座编队飞行中的星-星相对几何构形及其保持问题，以及星座卫星定轨所涉及的测控方式和天地基网联合定轨问题。这些内容都是卫星星座轨道力学中的重要组成部分。     

针对低轨星座的空间信号测距误差投影系数确定

随着低轨星座建设的不断推进,计算卫星空间信号测距误差(signal in space range error,SISRE)的面向对象不再局限于全球卫星导航系统(Global Navigation Satellite System, GNSS)的地面用户,还包括GNSS的低轨星载用户和低轨导航系统地面用户。为更好地支持基于低轨星座SISRE的解算,根据SISRE的计算原理,分别研究了低轨星载用户和低轨卫星地面用户的SISRE误差投影系数的特征。计算结果显示,GNSS卫星对地面用户的误差投影系数并不适用于低轨星载用户及低轨导航星座地面用户。当低轨卫星轨道高度由2 000 km降低至300 km时,GNSS卫星对低轨星载接收机的轨道径向误差投影系数由0.96增加到0.98,轨道切法平面误差投影系数由0.20降低至0.15;低轨卫星对地面用户的轨道径向误差投影系数从0.72降至0.37,轨道切法平面误差投影系数从0.49增加至0.66。上述结果可为未来低轨卫星相关的空间信号测距误差分析以及低轨完好性研究提供重要参考。     

月球卫星轨道力学综述

月球探测器的运动通常可分为3个阶段，这3个阶段分别对应3种不同类型的轨道：近地停泊轨道、向月飞行的过渡轨道与环月飞行的月球卫星轨道。近地停泊轨道实为一种地球卫星轨道；过渡轨道则涉及不同的过渡方式(大推力或小推力等)；环月飞行的月球卫星轨道则与地球卫星轨道有很多不同之处，它决不是地球卫星轨道的简单克隆。针对这一点，全面阐述月球卫星的轨道力学问题，特别是环月飞行中的一些热点问题，如轨道摄动解的构造、近月点高度的下降及其涉及的卫星轨道寿命、各种特殊卫星(如太阳同步卫星和冻结轨道卫星等)的轨道特征、月球卫星定轨等。     

关于空间探测器定位在太阳系中特殊点上的有关问题

WSO／UV(世界空间紫外天文台)以及监测太阳活动的特殊探测器(Solar Sentinel)都需要在日-地(月)系的平动点附近运行，且相对日-地(月)系要求其几何位置几乎保持不变，因此有必要阐明平动点的动力学特征及其附近的运动状况。基于这一点，对限制性三体模型下，日-地(月)系中平动点附近扰动运动的稳定性作了详尽的分析，尤其讨论了共线平动点具有不稳定动力学特征时，如何使WSO／UV这类空间探测器保持在其附近的情况；同时阐明了轨道保持不变的条件和相应的轨控措施。     

小倾角LEO多星天基平台光学跟踪GEO精密定轨

针对地基卫星测控系统(Tracking Telemetry and Command, TT&C)系统对地球静止轨道(Geostation-\lk ary Earth Orbit, GEO)卫星在空间和时间覆盖上的局限性, 提出小倾角低地球轨道(Low Earth Orbit, LEO)多星组网天基平台对GEO卫星进行跟踪定轨的方法. 根据空间环境和光学可视条件对仿真数据进行筛选以模拟真实的观测场景, 利用光学测角数据, 使用数值方法对GEO卫星的轨道进行确定. 结果与参考轨道进行重叠对比, 在平台轨道精度5 m、测量精度5rq\rq、 定轨弧长12 h的情况下, 两颗LEO卫星对GEO卫星进行跟踪定轨的精度可达到千米量级, 4颗LEO卫星对GEO目标进行跟踪定轨的精度可达到百米量级. 随着LEO组网卫星数量的增加, 定轨精度得到了较大的提高.     

利用太阳光压的大偏心率伴飞卫星轨道控制

提出了利用太阳帆进行大偏心率伴飞卫星轨道控制的方法.伴飞卫星围绕其惯量主轴做角速度恒定的自转,其惯量主轴在惯性系内指向保持不变.对伴飞卫星的控制分为轨道面的控制和轨道面内控制两部分.在控制过程中,优先考虑轨道面内的控制,在轨道面内控制不能进行(或者因为几何原因不能进行轨道面内控制)时,进行轨道面的控制.通过滑膜控制方法(Sliding Mode Control)计算轨道面内控制需要的控制力的方向和大小.得到需求的控制力要求后,推算出在控制过程中太阳帆相对于伴飞卫星主体的角度解析表达式.通过控制太阳帆的方向得到所需的不同的控制力.整个控制过程只针对伴飞卫星,主星处于自然飞行状态.最后对于这种控制方法进行数值验证.在无摄运动状态下通过控制系统进行伴飞轨道的轨道调整和误差消除,在考虑4阶非球形引力和第三体引力摄动情况下进行伴飞轨道的轨道维持.数值结果表明通过这种控制方法伴飞轨道能够保持轨道误差小于5 m.     

制约卫星轨道寿命的另一种机制(续)

对于制约低轨人造地球卫星轨道寿命的耗散机制，人们已有足够的重视，但在深空探测中，另一种制约低轨卫星轨道寿命的引力机制同样应予重视，前文讨论了高轨卫星的情况，在第三体引力作用下，有可能导致卫星轨道偏心率产生变幅较大的长周期变化。特别是极轨卫星，其轨道偏心率在一定的时间内可增大到使其近星距rp=a(1-e)≈Re（Re是中心天体的赤道半径），从而落到中心天体上，结束其轨道寿命，目前对低轨卫星作了详尽的理论分析，研究表明，与高轨卫星有类似结果，但其力学机制却不相同，低轨卫星的轨道寿命与第三体引力无关。它取决于中心天体非球形引力位中的扁率项（即J2项）与其他带谐项之间的相对大小，这不仅是一个纯理论结果，也有实际背景，在太阳系中慢自传天体（月球和金星等）的低轨卫星就存在这一问题，还给出了有关判据，并以计算实例作了验证。     

区域导航卫星精密定轨研究

区域卫星导航系统采用混合星座设计,GEO(地球同步轨道)卫星是系统的重要组成部分,其精密定轨技术也是导航系统的关键技术之一。GEO卫星的高轨特性致使地面跟踪基线长度有限,定轨几何条件不佳;其静地特性致使卫星轨道与钟差存在强相关特性,对于基于伪距的GEO卫星定轨模式,需要星地与站间时间同步技术的支持。因此,如何利用区域卫星导航系统的多种测量技术实现多模式、多层次的导航卫星精密定轨,是一项值得深入研究的课题。     

GIM在LEO卫星单频GPS定轨中的应用

电离层延迟误差是单频GPS(Global Positioning System)数据最主要的误差源,为提高基于单频GPS数据的LEO(Low Earth Orbiting)卫星定轨精度,必须消除/减弱GPS观测数据中电离层延迟影响.研究了全球电离层模型GIM(Global IonosphericMaps)在基于单频GPS伪距数据的低轨卫星运动学和动力学定轨中的应用,并通过估算电离层尺度因子的方法消除C/A码伪距观测量中电离层延迟影响.由于LEO卫星星载GPS信号受电离层延迟影响与卫星轨道高度相关,选取了轨道高度在300～800 km的CHAMP(CHAllenging Mini-satellite Payload)、GRACE(Gravity Recovery AndClimate Experiment)、TerraSAR-X及SAC-C等LEO卫星C/A码伪距观测量作为试算数据.CHAMP等卫星实测数据计算结果表明:以JPL(Jet Propulsion Laboratory)发布的GIM模型作为背景模型,通过电离层比例因子法能很好地消除C/A码伪距观测量中电离层延迟影响,提高LEO卫星运动学和动力学定轨精度,其中,CHAMP卫星轨道最低,受电离层延迟影响最严重,定轨精度提高最显著,分别为55.6%和47.6%;SAC-C卫星轨道高度最高,受电离层延迟影响最小,相应的定轨精度提高幅度也最低,分别为47.8%和38.2%.     

同步卫星短弧定轨

同步卫星受到摄动力的影响,它的实际轨道有一点漂移．卫星需要不断的调轨调姿,以保证其正常运行．为了研究卫星在几小时,甚至更短的时间内的轨迹情况,采用短弧段定轨法．用动力学方法进行短弧定轨,分别研究1小时和15分钟定轨并进行比较,目的是为了在同步轨道卫星变轨后,能尽快地为卫星提供精密的预报轨道．此外,在系列短弧定轨后,得到精密轨道系列,为研究轨道变化的力学因素及研究短弧中卫星转发器时延变化规律等提供依据．     

A stability study of Kuiper Belt binaries

The dynamical structure of the orbital element space of seven Kuiper Belt binary systems is studied by numerical methods in the model of the spatial elliptic restricted three‐body problem. It is shown that three systems have an extended region of stability where additional satellites could exist. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

On the stability of the satellites of asteroid 87 Sylvia

The triple asteroidal system (87) Sylvia is composed of a 280-km primary and two small moonlets named Romulus and Remus ( Marchis et al. 2005b ). Sylvia is located in the main asteroid belt, with semi-major axis of about 3.49 au, eccentricity of 0.08 and 11° of orbital inclination. The satellites are in nearly equatorial circular orbits around the primary, with orbital radius of about 1360 km (Romulus) and 710 km (Remus). In this work, we study the stability of the satellites Romulus and Remus. In order to identify the effects and the contribution of each perturber, we performed numerical simulations considering a set of different systems. The results from the three-body problem, Sylvia–Romulus–Remus, show no significant variation of their orbital elements. However, the inclinations of the satellites present a long-period evolution with amplitude of about 20° when the Sun is included in the system. Such amplitude is amplified to more than 50° when Jupiter is included. These evolutions are very similar for both satellites. An analysis of these results shows that Romulus and Remus are librating in a secular resonance and their longitude of the nodes are locked to each other. Further simulations show that the amplitude of oscillation of the satellites' inclination can reach higher values depending on the initial values of their longitude of pericentre. In those cases, the satellites get caught in an evection resonance with Jupiter, their eccentricities grow and they eventually collide with Sylvia. However, the orbital evolutions of the satellites became completely stable when the oblateness of Sylvia is included in the simulations. The value of Sylvia's J ₂ is about 0.17, which is very high. However, even just 0.1 per cent of this value is enough to keep the satellite's orbital elements with no significant variation.     

Time Scales and Tidal Effects in Minor Mergers

We use controlled N-body simulation to investigate the dynamical processes (dynamical friction, tidal truncation, etc.) involved in the merging of small satellites into bigger halos. We confirm the validity of some analytic formulae proposed earlier based on simple arguments. For rigid satellites represented by softened point masses, the merging time scale depends on both the orbital shape and concentration of the satellite. The dependence on orbital ellipticity is roughly a power law, as suggested by Lacey & Cole, and the dependence on satellite concentration is similar to that proposed by White. When merging satellites are represented by non-rigid objects, Tidal effects must be considered. We found that material beyond the tidal radius are stripped off. The decrease in the satellite mass might mean an increase in the merging time scale, but in fact, the merging time is decreased, because the stripped-off material carries away a proportionately larger amount of of orbital energy and angular momentum.     

The rotation states predominant among the planetary satellites

On the basis of tidal despinning timescale arguments, Peale showed in 1977 that the majority of irregular satellites (with unknown rotation states) are expected to reside close to their initial (fast) rotation states. Here we investigate the problem of the current typical rotation states among all known satellites from a viewpoint of dynamical stability. We explore location of the known planetary satellites on the (ω₀, e) stability diagram, where ω₀ is an inertial parameter of a satellite and e is its orbital eccentricity. We show that most of the satellites with unknown rotation states cannot rotate synchronously, because no stable synchronous 1:1 spin-orbit state exists for them. They rotate either much faster than synchronously (those tidally unevolved) or, what is much less probable, chaotically (tidally-evolved objects or captured slow rotators).     

Tidal evolution of the Galilean satellites: A linearized theory

The Laplace resonance among the Galilean satellites Io, Europa, and Ganymede is traditionally reduced to a pendulum-like dynamical problem by neglecting short-period variations of several orbital elements. However, some of these variations that can now be neglected may once have had longer periods, comparable to the “pendulum” period, if the system was formerly in deep resonance (pairs of periods even closer to the ratio 2:1 than they are now). In that case, the dynamical system cannot be reduced to fewer than nine dimensions. The nine-dimensional system is linearized here in order to study small variations about equilibrium. When tidal effects are included, the resulting evolution is substantially the same as was indicated by the pendulum approach, except that evolution out of deep resonance is found to be somewhat slower than suggested by extrapolation of the pendulum results. This slower rate helps support my hypothesis that the system may have evolved from deep resonance, although other factors still need to be considered to determine whether that hypothesis is quantitatively viable.     

Chaotic Asteroidal Dynamics and Maximum Lyapunov Exponents

This paper describes the results of studies of dynamical chaos in the problem of the orbital dynamics of asteroids near the 3 : 1 mean-motion resonance with Jupiter. Maximum Lyapunov characteristic exponents (MLCEs) are used as an indicator and a measure of the chaoticity of motion. MLCE values are determined for trajectories calculated by the numerical integration of equations of motion in the planar elliptical restricted three-body problem. The dependence of the MLCE on the problem parameters and on the initial data is analyzed. The inference is made that the domain of chaos in the phase space of the problem considered consists of two components of different nature. The values of the MLCEs observed for one of the components (namely, for the component corresponding to low-eccentricity asteroidal orbits) are compared to the theoretical estimates obtained within the framework of model of the resonance as a perturbed nonlinear pendulum.     

Irregular Satellites of Jupiter: a study of the capture direction

The irregular satellites of Jupiter are believed to be captured asteroids or planetesimals. In the present work is studied the direction of capture of these objects as a function of their orbital inclination. We performed numerical simulations of the restricted three-body problem, Sun-Jupiter-particle, taking into account the growth of Jupiter. The integration was made backward in time. Initially, the particles have orbits as satellites of Jupiter, which has its present mass. Then, the system evolved with Jupiter losing mass and the satellites escaping from the planet. The reverse of the escape direction corresponds to the capture direction. The results show that the Lagrangian points L1 and L2 mainly guide the direction of capture. Prograde satellites are captured through these two gates with very narrow amplitude angles. In the case of retrograde satellites, these two gates are wider. The capture region increases as the orbital inclination increases. In the case of planar retrograde satellites the directions of capture cover the whole 360° around Jupiter. We also verified that prograde satellites are captured earlier in actual time than retrograde ones. This paper was presented at the Asteriods, Comets and Meteors meeting held at Búzios, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in August 2005 and could not be included in the special issue related to that conference.     

Quasi-satellite orbits in the general context of dynamics in the 1:1 mean motion resonance: perturbative treatment

Our investigation is motivated by the recent discovery of asteroids orbiting the Sun and simultaneously staying near one of the Solar System planets for a long time. This regime of motion is usually called the quasi-satellite regime, since even at the times of the closest approaches the distance between the asteroid and the planet is significantly larger than the region of space (the Hill’s sphere) in which the planet can hold its satellites. We explore the properties of the quasi-satellite regimes in the context of the spatial restricted circular three-body problem “Sun–planet–asteroid”. Via double numerical averaging, we construct evolutionary equations which describe the long-term behaviour of the orbital elements of an asteroid. Special attention is paid to possible transitions between the motion in a quasi-satellite orbit and the one in another type of orbits available in the 1:1 resonance. A rough classification of the corresponding evolutionary paths is given for an asteroid’s motion with a sufficiently small eccentricity and inclination.     

Some unsolved problems in evolutionary dynamics in the solar system

Several unsolved problems in the evolutionary histories leading to current dynamical configurations of the planets and their systems of satellites are discussed. These include the possibilities of rather tight constraints on the primordial rotation states of Mercury and Venus and the stabilizing mechanism for the latter's retrograde spin, a brief mention of the problem of origin of the moons of Earth and Mars, the excessive heat flow from Jupiter's satellite lo which is not compatible with an otherwise self-consistent model of origin of the Laplace three-body libration, the mechanism for the long history of resurfacing of Saturn's satellite Enceladus and the possibly short lifetime of the A ring and the mechanisms for resurfacing the satellites of Uranus, especially Ariel, if the high stability of the mean motion orbital resonances at the 2/1 commensurability involving Ariel and Umbriel precludes a long term occupancy of the resonance. Finally, excessive times of accumulation of the outer planets in current models may possibly be reducible from the effects of nebular gas drag.