Changing inclination of earth satellites using the gravity of the moon

Karla de Souza Torres and A. F. B. A. Prado

Mathematical Problems in Engineering, 2006, vol. 2006, 1-13

Abstract:

We analyze the problem of the orbital control of an Earth's satellite using the gravity of the Moon. The main objective is to study a technique to decrease the fuel consumption of a plane change maneuver to be performed in a satellite that is in orbit around the Earth. The main idea of this approach is to send the satellite to the Moon using a single-impulsive maneuver, use the gravity field of the Moon to make the desired plane change of the trajectory, and then return the satellite to its nominal semimajor axis and eccentricity using a bi-impulsive Hohmann-type maneuver. The satellite is assumed to start in a Keplerian orbit in the plane of the lunar orbit around the Earth and the goal is to put it in a similar orbit that differs from the initial orbit only by the inclination. A description of the close-approach maneuver is made in the three-dimensional space. Analytical equations based on the patched conics approach are used to calculate the variation in velocity, angular momentum, energy, and inclination of the satellite. Then, several simulations are made to evaluate the savings involved. The time required by those transfers is also calculated and shown.

Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://downloads.hindawi.com/journals/MPE/2006/013690.pdf (application/pdf)
http://downloads.hindawi.com/journals/MPE/2006/013690.xml (text/xml)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hin:jnlmpe:013690

DOI: 10.1155/MPE/2006/13690

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Mathematical Problems in Engineering from Hindawi
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Mohamed Abdelhakeem ().