On the a and g families of orbits in the Hill problem with solar radiation pressure and their application to asteroids

Garcia Yarnoz, Daniel and Scheeres, Daniel J. and McInnes, Colin (2015) On the a and g families of orbits in the Hill problem with solar radiation pressure and their application to asteroids. Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy, 121 (4). pp. 365-384. ISSN 0923-2958

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Abstract

The focus of this paper is on the exploration of the a and g-g’ families of planar symmetric periodic orbits around minor bodies under the effect of solar radiation pressure. An extended Hill problem with solar radiation pressure (SRP) allows the study of spacecraft trajectories in the vicinity of asteroids orbiting the Sun. The evolution of the a and g-g’ families is presented with SRP increasing from the classical Hill problem to levels characteristic of current and future planned missions to minor bodies, as well as one extreme case with very large SRP for a small asteroid. In addition, the implications of considering a spherical body are analysed, in terms of trajectories colliding with the asteroid and eclipses, which limits the feasibility of various family branches. Finally, the influence of SRP on the linear stability of feasible orbits is calculated.