Frozen orbits around asteroids with zonal gravity, radiation pressure, and third-body perturbations

Abozaid, Ahmed A.; Radwan, Mohamed; Ibrahim, Ahmed H.; Bakry, Abdelaziz

doi:10.58675/2636-3305.1690

Frozen orbits around asteroids with zonal gravity, radiation pressure, and third-body perturbations

Authors

¹ Astronomy and Meteorology Department, Faculty of Science Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt

² Astronomy and Space Science Department, Faculty of Science Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.

³ Astronomy and Meteorology Department, Faculty of Science Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt.

10.58675/2636-3305.1690

Abstract

The motion of a probe around asteroids is highly perturbed by several disturbing forces. So, understanding the dynamics in asteroid-proximity environments is essential to designing stable orbits around these small objects. The present work focuses on the effect of a third-body attraction on frozen orbits around asteroids. The full dynamic model includes the asteroid's gravitational field up to the fourth zonal harmonics, and solar radiation pressure, besides a third-body attraction. The work derives semi-analytical solutions of such orbits under the full model perturbations. We carried out several numerical simulations to investigate the effect of the third body on the frozen orbits and the dynamics. We found that the third-body attraction shifts the location of the frozen orbits and affects the dynamics. In addition, we found that the area-to-mass ratio A/m of the probe influences the location of the frozen orbits. Furthermore, we found that the initial eccentricities and inclinations affect the orbits.

Keywords