An analytic method to account for drag in the Vinti satellite theory

In order to retain separability in the Vinti theory of Earth satellite motion when a nonconservative force such as air drag is considered, a set of variational equations for the orbital elements are introduced, and expressed as functions of the transverse, radial, and normal components of the nonconservative forces acting on the system. In this approach, the Hamiltonian is preserved in form, and remains the total energy, but the initial or boundary conditions and hence the Jacobi constants of the motion advance with time through the variational equations. In particular, the atmospheric density profile is written as a fitted exponential function of the eccentric anomaly, which adheres to tabular data at all, altitudes and simultaneously reduces the variational equations to definite integrals with closed form evaluations whose limits are in terms of the eccentric anomaly. The values of the limits for any arbitrary time interval are obtained from the Vinti program.Results of this technique for the case of the intense air drag satellites San Marco-2 and Air Force Cannonball are given. These results indicate that the satellite ephemerides produced by this theory in conjunction with the Vinti program are of very high accuracy. In addition, since the program is entirely analytic, several months of ephemerides can be obtained within a few seconds of computer time.