Low-altitude, near-polar and near-circular orbits around Europa

Autor(es)

Carvalho, J. P. S. ^{[1, 2]} ; Elipe, A. ^{[3, 4]} ; Vilhena de Moraes, R. ^{[1, 2]} ; Prado, A. F. B. A. ^[5]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Estadual Paulista, UNESP, BR-12516410 Guaratingueta, SP - Brazil

^[2] Univ Fed Sao Paulo, Inst Ciencia & Tecnol, UNIFESP, BR-12331280 Sao Jose Dos Campos, SP - Brazil

^[3] Univ Zaragoza, IUMA, Ctr Univ Def Zaragoza, E-50009 Zaragoza - Spain

^[4] Univ Zaragoza, IUMA, Grp Mecan Espacial, E-50009 Zaragoza - Spain

^[5] INPE, Div Space Mech & Control, BR-12227010 Sao Jose Dos Campos, SP - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: Advances in Space Research; v. 49, n. 5, p. 994-1006, MAR 1 2012.
• Citações Web of Science: 16

Resumo

The dynamics of orbits around planetary satellites, taking into account the gravitational attraction of a third-body and the non -uniform distribution of mass of the planetary satellite, is studied. The Hamiltonian considered is explicitly time-dependent. Conditions for frozen orbits are presented. Low-altitude, near-polar orbits, very desirable for scientific missions to study planetary satellites such as the Jupiter's moon Europa, are analyzed. Lifetimes for these orbits are computed through the single and double averaged method. Comparison between the results obtained by the single and double averaged method is presented. The single-averaged model is more realistic, since it does not eliminate the term due to the equatorial ellipticity of the planetary satellite as done by the double-averaged problem. Considering the single-averaged method, we found unstable frozen orbits where the satellite does not impact with the surface of Europa for at least 200 days. We present an approach using the unaveraged disturbing potential to analyze the effects of these terms in the amplitude of the eccentricity. (C) 2011 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 07/04413-7 - Perturbação orbital devida a um terceiro corpo com distribuição de massa não uniforme e em órbita elíptica
• Beneficiário: Jean Paulo dos Santos Carvalho
• Linha de fomento: Bolsas no Brasil - Doutorado
• Processo FAPESP: 06/04997-6 - Encontros próximos em dinâmica orbital
• Beneficiário: Rodolpho Vilhena de Moraes
• Linha de fomento: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Temático