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- Title
Quasi-critical orbits for artificial lunar satellites.
- Authors
S. Tzirti; K. Tsiganis; H. Varvoglis
- Abstract
Abstract We study the problem of critical inclination orbits for artificial lunar satellites, when in the lunar potential we include, besides the Keplerian term, the J 2 and C 22 terms and lunar rotation. We show that, at the fixed points of the 1-D averaged Hamiltonian, the inclination and the argument of pericenter do not remain both constant at the same time, as is the case when only the J 2 term is taken into account. Instead, there exist quasi-critical solutions, for which the argument of pericenter librates around a constant value. These solutions are represented by smooth curves in phase space, which determine the dependence of the quasi-critical inclination on the initial nodal phase. The amplitude of libration of both argument of pericenter and inclination would be quite large for a non-rotating Moon, but is reduced to J 2, C 22 and the rotation rate strongly affect the quasi-critical inclination and the libration amplitude of the argument of pericenter. Examples for other celestial bodies are given, showing the dependence of the results on J 2, C 22 and rotation rate.
- Subjects
LUNAR satellite orbits; POTENTIAL theory (Physics); KEPLER'S equation; ROTATIONAL motion; HAMILTONIAN systems; PHASE space; CELESTIAL mechanics
- Publication
Celestial Mechanics & Dynamical Astronomy, 2009, Vol 104, Issue 3, p227
- ISSN
0923-2958
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s10569-009-9207-4