Rapid Charged Geosynchronous Debris Perturbation Modeling of Electrodynamic Disturbances
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Rapid Charged Geosynchronous Debris Perturbation Modeling of Electrodynamic Disturbances Joseph Hughes1 · Hanspeter Schaub2
© American Astronautical Society 2018
Abstract Charged space objects experience small perturbative torques and forces from their interaction with Earth’s magnetic field. These small perturbations can change the orbits of lightweight, uncontrolled debris objects dramatically even over short periods. This paper investigates the effects of the isolated Lorentz force, the effects of including or neglecting this and other electromagnetic perturbations in a full propagation, and then analyzes for which objects electromagnetic effects have the most impact. It is found that electromagnetic forces have a negligible impact on their own. However, if the center of charge is not collocated with the center of mass, electromagnetic torques are produced which do impact the attitude, and thus the position by affecting the direction and magnitude of the solar radiation pressure force. The objects for which electrostatic torques have the most influence are charged above the kilovolt level, have a difference between their center of mass and center of charge, have highly attitude-dependent cross-sectional area, and are not spinning stably about an axis of maximum inertia. Fully coupled numerical simulation illustrate the impact of electromagnetic disturbances through the solar radiation pressure coupling. Keywords Electrostatics · Perturbations · HAMR
Joseph Hughes
[email protected] Hanspeter Schaub [email protected] 1
275 ECEE, 431 UCB, University of CO, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
2
321 ECNT, 431 UCB, University of CO, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
J of Astronaut Sci
Introduction The two-body equations of motion are not sufficient to describe the orbital motions of all objects. At low altitudes, Earth’s spherical gravity and drag strongly perturb certain orbits. Further out in Geosynchronous (GEO) orbit, all objects are perturbed by lunar and solar gravity, and some High Area-to-Mass (HAMR) objects are strongly perturbed by Solar Radiation Pressure (SRP) [1]. However, SRP is not sufficient to explain the motions of all HAMR GEO objects. The 28th International Symposium for Space Technologies and Sciences held in London, England, in June 2011 identified this issue. Professor Schildknecht discussed that families of HAMR objects have been identified whose mean motion changes remain very small, while the orbital angular momentum of these objects changes significantly with eccentricities varying up to 0.7. The physical cause of this motion remains unclear, but has led to the hypothesis that a Lorentz force might be involved due to charging [2]. Additionally, Wiesel recently reported [2] some near-GEO debris objects which appear to accelerate towards the Sun during the propagation interval, which is impossible with SRP. One possible source of this discrepancy is that these objects may be interacting with Earth’s magnetic field. Some of these objects that are hard to model are thought to be torn-of
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