Exact linearization of non-planar intermediary orbits in the satellite theory

In this paper we consider the reduction of the equations of motion for non-planar perturbed two body problems into linear form. It is seen that this can be easily accomplished for any element of the class of radial intermediaries to the satellite problem proposed by Deprit in 1981, since they have a functional dependence suitable for linearization. The transformation is worked out by using an adequate set of redundant variables. Four harmonic oscillators are obtained, of which two are coupled through gyroscopic terms. Their constant frequencies contain the secular contribution of the main problem of artificial satellite theory up to the order of the considered intermediary. Therefore, this result may well be interesting in relation to the study and prediction of accurate long-term solutions to satellite problems.     

Satellite onboard orbit propagation using Deprit’s radial intermediary

Short-term satellite onboard orbit propagation is required when GPS position measurements are unavailable due to an obstruction or a malfunction. In this paper, it is shown that natural intermediary orbits of the main problem provide a useful alternative for the implementation of short-term onboard orbit propagators instead of direct numerical integration. Among these intermediaries, Deprit’s radial intermediary (DRI), obtained by the elimination of the parallax transformation, shows clear merits in terms of computational efficiency and accuracy. Indeed, this proposed analytical solution is free from elliptic integrals, as opposed to other intermediaries, thus speeding the evaluation of corresponding expressions. The only remaining equation to be solved by iterations is the Kepler equation, which in most of cases does not impact the total computation time. A comprehensive performance evaluation using Monte-Carlo simulations is performed for various orbital inclinations, showing that the analytical solution based on DRI outperforms a Dormand–Prince fixed-step Runge–Kutta integrator as the inclination grows.     

The elimination of the parallax in satellite theory

When the perturbation affecting a Keplerian motion is proportional tor ^–n (n3), a canonical transformation of Lie type will convert the system into one in which the perturbation is proportional tor ^–2. Because it removes parallactic factors, the transformation is called the elimination of the parallax.In the main problem for the theory of artificial satellites, the elimination of the parallax has been conducted by computer to order 4. The first order in the reduced system may now be integrated in closed form, thereby revealing the fundamental property of the first-order intermediary orbits in line with Newton's Propositio XLIV.Extension beyond order 1 leads to identify a new class of intermediaries for the main problem in nodal coordinates, namely the radial intermediaries.The technique of smoothing a perturbation prior to normalizing the perturbed Keplerian system, of which the elimination of the parallax is an instance, is applied to derive the intermediaries in nodal coordinates proposed by Sterne, Garfinkel, Cid-Palacios and Aksnes, and to find the canonical diffeomorphisms which relate them to one another and to the radial intermediaries.     

Encounter in the keplerian field: Analytical treatment

In extending the results of Henon and Petit (1986) an algorithm is suggested for constructing the series representing the general encounter-type solution of the spatial eccentric Hill's problem. The series are arranged in powers of the eccentricity E of Hill's problem and two integration constants e and k characterizing eccentricity and inclination of the relative motion. A particular non-periodic solution of Henon and Petit corresponding to E = e = k = 0 is taken as an intermediary. The perturbations to this solution are constructed similar to the lunar theory of Hill and Brown.     

Note on Cid's radial intermediary and the method of averaging

In the main problem of artificial satellite theory, the difference between the Hamiltonian and Cid's radial intermediary is a function of the argument of latitude whose average over the mean anomaly is zero.Así debe ser—dijo cl Cura—; y en lo de casarsc vuestro amo, yo haré en ello todos mis poderíos. —MIGUEL de CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha.     

Integrable approximation of J 2-perturbed relative orbits

Most existing satellite relative motion theories utilize mean elements, and therefore cannot be used for calculating long-term bounded perturbed relative orbits. The goal of the current paper is to find an integrable approximation for the relative motion problem under the J ₂ perturbation, which is adequate for long-term prediction of bounded relative orbits with arbitrary inclinations. To that end, a radial intermediary Hamiltonian is utilized. The intermediary Hamiltonian retains the original structure of the full J ₂ Hamiltonian, excluding the latitude dependence. This formalism provides integrability via separation, a fact that is utilized for finding periodic relative orbits in a local-vertical local-horizontal frame and determine an initialization scheme that yields long-term boundedness of the relative distance. Numerical experiments show that the intermediary-based computation of orbits provides long-term bounded orbits in the full J ₂ problem for various inclinations. In addition, a test case is shown in which the radial intermediary-based initial conditions of the chief and deputy satellites yield bounded relative distance in a high-precision orbit propagator.     

Critical inclination in the main problem of a massive satellite

The classical problem of the critical inclination in artificial satellite theory has been extended to the case when a satellite may have an arbitrary, significant mass and the rotation momentum vector is tilted with respect to the symmetry axis of the planet. If the planet’s potential is restricted to the second zonal harmonic, according to the assumptions of the main problem of the satellite theory, two various phenomena can be observed: a critical inclination that asymptotically tends to the well known negligible mass limit, and a critical tilt that can be attributed to the effect of transforming the gravity field harmonics to a different reference frame. Stability of this particular solution of the two rigid bodies problem is studied analytically using a simple pendulum approximation.     

A new theory of the motions of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter

The main features of this theory are presented with special emphasis on the most specific of them: choice of the parameters, separation of the problem into subproblems (main problem, generalized main problem, complete problem), special adaptation of the method required by the resonant situation of the Galilean system.     

Planetary perturbations on the Libration of the Moon

A theory of the libration of the Moon, completely analytical with respect to the harmonic coefficients of the lunar gravity field, was recently built (Moons, 1982). The Lie transforms method was used to reduce the Hamiltonian of the main problem of the libration of the Moon and to produce the usual libration series p₁, p₂ and . This main problem takes into account the perturbations due to the Sun and the Earth on the rotation of a rigid Moon about its center of mass. In complement to this theory, we have now computed the planetary effects on the libration, the planetary terms being added to the mean Hamiltonian of the main problem before a last elimination of the angles. For the main problem, as well as for the planetary perturbations, the motion of the center of mass of the Moon is described by the ELP 2000 solution (Chapront and Chapront-Touze, 1983).     

Forced nutations of a two-layer Earth model

In this paper we present a theory of the Earth rotation for a model composed of an inelastic mantle and a liquid core, including the dissipation in the core–mantle boundary (CMB). The main features of the theory are: (i) to be Hamiltonian, therefore the computation of some complex inner torques can be avoided; (ii) to be self-consistent and non-dependent on a previous rigid Earth theory, so there is no need to use transfer functions; (iii) to be analytical, the solution being derived by perturbation methods. Numerical nutation series deduced from the theory are compared with the IERS 96 empirical series, an accuracy better than 0.8 mas in providing celestial ephemeris pole (CEP) offsets .     

Intermediary LEO propagation including higher order zonal harmonics

Two new intermediary orbits of the artificial satellite problem are proposed. The analytical solutions include higher order effects of the geopotential, and are obtained by means of a torsion transformation applied to the quasi-Keplerian system resulting after the elimination of the parallax simplification, for the first intermediary, and after the elimination of the parallax and perigee simplifications, for the second one. The new intermediaries perform notably well for low Earth orbits propagation, are free from special functions, and result advantageous, both in accuracy and efficiency, when compared to the standard Cowell integration of the \(J_2\) problem, thus providing appealing alternatives for onboard, short-term, orbit propagation under limited computational resources.     

A linear solution of the equations of motion of an earth-orbiting satellite based on a Lie-series

Using Hill's variables, an analytical solution of a canonical system of six differential equations describing the motion of a satellite in the gravitational field of the earth is derived. The gravity field, expanded into spherical harmonics, has to be expressed as a function of the Hill variables. The intermediary is chosen to include the main secular terms. The first order solution retains the highly practical formal structure of Kaula's linear solution, but is valid for circular orbits and provides of course a spectral decomposition of radius vector and radial velocity. The resulting eccentricity functions are much simpler than the Hansen functions, since a series evaluation of the Kepler equation is avoided. The present solution may be extended to higher order solutions by Hori's perturbation method.     

Analytical theory of the libration of the Moon

This paper presents a new theory of the libration of the Moon, completely analytical with respect to the harmonic coefficients of the lunar gravity field. This field is represented through its third degree harmonics for the torque due to the Earth (second degree for the torque due to the Sun).The orbital motion of the Moon is described by the ELP 2000 solution (Chapront-Touzé, 1980) of the main problem of lunar theory.the physical libration variables are obtained as Poisson series and comparisons with the results of Eckhardt (Eckhardt, 1981) and Migus (Migus, 1980) are presented.     

On the stability of triangular libration points of the photogravitational restricted circular three-body problem

This paper considers the restricted circular three-body problem with respect to the radiation repulsion force acting upon a particle on the part of one of the main bodies (the Sun). The characteristic of the family of stationary particular solutions of the problem (libration points) representing the relative equilibrium positions in a rotating Cartesian system is given. On the basis of the KAM theory with the help of a computer a nonlinear analysis of the triangular libration points stability for the planar case is carried out. These libration points are proved to be strictly stable by Liapunov practically in the whole area of fulfilling the necessary stability conditions. Instability is discovered at the resonant curve of the third order and at the greater part of the resonant curve of the fourth order. The plotted results of the investigation allowed us to draw a conclusion about the Liapunov stability of the triangular libration points in a problem with respect to the radiation pressure for all the planets of the Solar system.     

Asymptotic expansions in the perturbed two-body problem with application to systems with variable mass

The main theorems of the theory of averaging are formulated for slowly varying standard systems and we show that it is possible to extend the class of perturbation problems where averaging might be used. The application of the averaging method to the perturbed two-body problem is possible but involves many technical difficulties which in the case of the two-body problem with variable mass are avoided by deriving new and more suitable equations for these perturbation problems. Application of the averaging method to these perturbation problems yields asymptotic approximations which are valid on a long time-scale. It is shown by comparison with results obtained earlier that in the case of the two-body problem with slow decrease of mass the averaging method cannot be applied if the initial conditions are nearly parabolic. In studying the two-body problem with quick decrease of mass it is shown that the new formulation of the perturbation problem can be used to obtain matched asymptotic approximations.     

Linearization in special cases of perturbed Keplerian motions

This paper treats linearization of problems of motion in three-dimensions in not-central force fields, when the problems are reducible to the one-dimensional case by using integrals of the motion. Linearizing transformations of the independent variable are found to solve such problems if the motion is bounded, and explicit forms of the regularizing functions, corresponding to more common potentials, are given. An application is presented to the integration of a radial intermediary orbit that arises in the analytical study of the theory of artificial satellites.     

Approximate rotation curve solutions for the evolution of a viscous protogalactic disk

The problem of evolution of viscous protogalactic disks is examined. A modification of traditional turbulent viscosity theory is proposed which is based on the premise that the eddies are so small and numerous that each eddy can be considered to be large molecule. The radial flow term is omitted from the viscosity equation to make it tractable, and the radial flow is later reintroduced via the requirement of gravitational balance within the disk. The main result is a family of rotation curves that, as the system evolves, serially reproduces most types of observed rotation curves. With the use of Seiden's star formation theory, the present model produces an exponential-like luminosity profile whenever stars form and the viscous action ceases.Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for U.S. Dept. of Energy under contract W-7405-ENG-36.     

Distance Between Two Arbitrary Unperturbed Orbits

In the paper by Kholshevnikov and Vassilie, 1999, (see also references therein) the problem of finding critical points of the distance function between two confocal Keplerian elliptic orbits (hence finding the distance between them in the sense of set theory) is reduced to the determination of all real roots of a trigonometric polynomial of degree eight. In non-degenerate cases a polynomial of lower degree with such properties does not exist. Here we extend the results to all possible cases of ordered pairs of orbits in the Two–Body–Problem. There are nine main cases corresponding to three main types of orbits: ellipse, hyperbola, and parabola. Note that the ellipse–hyperbola and hyperbola–ellipse cases are not equivalent as we exclude the variable marking the position on the second curve. For our purposes rectilinear trajectories can be treated as particular (not limiting) cases of elliptic or hyperbolic orbits.     

A model for binary-binary close encounters and collisions from a dynamical point of view

The goal of this paper is to provide a model for binary-binary interactions in star clusters, which is based on simultaneous binary collision of a special case of the one-dimensional 4-body problem where four masses move symmetrically about the center of mass. From the theoretical point of view, the singularity due to binary collisions between point masses can be handled by means of regularization theory. Our main tool is a change of coordinates due to McGehee by which we blow-up the singular set associated to total collision and replace it with an invariant manifold which includes binary and simultaneous binary collisions, and then gain a complete picture of the local behavior of the solutions near to total collision via the homothetic orbit.     

On the artificial satellite theory

Some of the basic ideas of an analytical orbiter theory which is being developed by Hubert Claes in Namur are presented.The theory is based on the Lie transform technique and will be expressed in a closed form up to second order. The inclusion of additional terms of the third order (expanded in power series of the eccentricity) will be considered.Special attention is being given to the choice of the elements and to the final form of the theory. Three main criteria are used. The removal of the virtual singularities of small inclination and eccentricity. The simplicity of the final form of the theory once the elements have been given their numerical values. The numerical stability of the evaluation of the theory.