Xiyun Hou

Dynamics of Satellites Around Asteroids in Presence of Solar Radiation Pressure

Due to the close distance to the Sun, solar radiation pressure (SRP) plays an important role in the dynamics of satellites around near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). In this paper, we focus on the equilibrium points of a satellite orbiting around an asteroid in presence of SRP in the asteroid rotating frame. The asteroid is modelled as a uniformly rotating triaxial ellipsoid. When SRP comes into play, the equilibrium points transformed into periodic orbits termed as“dynamical substitutes”. We obtain the analytical approximate solutions of the dynamical substitutes from the linearised equations of motion. The analytical solutions are then used as initial guesses and are numerically corrected to compute the accurate orbits of the dynamical substitutes. The stability of the dynamical substitutes is analysed and the stability maps are obtained by varying parameters of the ellipsoid model as well as the magnitude of SRP.