Orbital effects in a cloud of space debris making a close approach with the earth
- PDF / 1,443,185 Bytes
- 11 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 108 Downloads / 184 Views
Orbital effects in a cloud of space debris making a close approach with the earth Jorge Kennety S. Formiga1 · Vivian Martins Gomes2 · Rodolpho Vilhena de Moraes3
Received: 13 January 2017 / Revised: 19 March 2017 / Accepted: 25 March 2017 © SBMAC - Sociedade Brasileira de Matemática Aplicada e Computacional 2017
Abstract The present paper has the goal of studying the changes of the orbital parameters of each individual element of a cloud of particles that makes a close approach with the Earth. Clouds of particles are formed when natural or man-made bodies explode for some reason. After an explosion like that, the center of mass of the cloud follows the same orbit of the body that generated the explosion, but the individual particles have different trajectories. The cloud is specified by a distribution of semi-major axis and eccentricity of their particles. This cloud is assumed to pass close to the Earth, making a close approach that modifies the trajectory of every particle that belongs to the cloud. The present paper makes simulations based in the “Patched-Conics” model to obtain the new trajectories of each particle. Then, it is possible to map the new distribution of the Keplerian elements of the particles that constituted the cloud, using the previous distribution as initial conditions. These information are important when planning satellite missions having a spacecraft passing close to a cloud of this type, because it is possible to obtain values for the density and amplitude of the cloud, so finding the risks of collision and the possible maneuvers that need to be made in the spacecraft to avoid the collisions. Keywords Orbital Maneuver · Close approach · Restricted three-body problem · Space trajectories Communicated by Elbert Macau, Antônio Fernando Bertachini de Almeida Prado and Othon Cabo Winter.
B
Jorge Kennety S. Formiga [email protected] Vivian Martins Gomes [email protected] Rodolpho Vilhena de Moraes [email protected]
1
Instituto de Ciência e Tecnologia, UNESP, Universidade Estadual Paulista, São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil
2
Grupo de Dinâmica Orbital e Planetologia, UNESP, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Guaratinguetá, São Paulo, Brazil
3
Universidade Federal de São Paulo/ICT, São Paulo, Brazil
123
J. K. S. Formiga et al.
Mathematics Subject Classification 70F05 · 70F07 · 70F15
1 Introduction Since the launch of the first satellite in 1957, there is a large expansion in findings related to space, due to the great advancements space technology obtained in the last decades. From time to time, satellites are sent into space, discovering new horizons and increasingly monitoring the Solar System. The artificial satellites launched are used for several purposes, including the observations of the Earth, climate monitoring, studies of the atmosphere and the Earth’s gravitational field, etc. Space exploration requires that the orbits are accurately determined, where limits are established for each type of mission. However, since 1961, more than 190 man-mad
Data Loading...
