Dynamics of Artificial Satellites around Europa

Autor(es)

dos Santos Carvalho, Jean Paulo ; de Moraes, Rodolpho Vilhena ; Bertachini de Almeida Prado, Antonio Fernando

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: MATHEMATICAL PROBLEMS IN ENGINEERING; v. 2013, p. 7-pg., 2013-01-01.

Resumo

A planetary satellite of interest at the present moment for the scientific community is Europa, one of the four largest moons of Jupiter. There are some missions planned to visit Europa in the next years, for example, Jupiter Europa Orbiter (JEO, NASA) and Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE, ESA). In this paper, we search for orbits around Europa with long lifetimes. Here, we develop the disturbing potential in closed form up to the second order to analyze the effects caused on the orbital elements of an artificial satellite around Europa. The equations of motion are developed in closed form to avoid expansions in power series of the eccentricity and inclination. We found polar orbits with long lifetimes. This type of orbits reduces considerably the maintenance cost of the orbit. We show a formula to calculate the critical inclination of orbits around Europa taking into account the disturbing potential due to the nonspherical shape of the central body and the perturbation of the third body. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 11/05671-5 - Análise de estabilidade para órbitas de satélites planetários
• Beneficiário: Jean Paulo dos Santos Carvalho
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Pós-Doutorado
• Processo FAPESP: 11/09310-7 - Estudo orbital do movimento de veículos espaciais
• Beneficiário: Antônio Fernando Bertachini de Almeida Prado
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Regular
• Processo FAPESP: 11/08171-3 - Dinâmica orbital de pequenos corpos
• Beneficiário: Othon Cabo Winter
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Temático