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Some characteristics of orbits for a spacecraft around Mercury

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Abstract

Solar sails are a type of propulsion that uses solar radiation pressure to generate acceleration. The fundamental goal for any solar sail design is to provide a large and flat reflective film which requires a minimum of structural support mass. This research takes into account the non-sphericity of the central body, the perturbation of the third body and the solar radiation pressure to analyze the behavior of the orbit of a spacecraft when it has a solar sail around Mercury. We present an approach where we plot maps to analyze frozen orbits with longer lifetimes around Mercury. A set of initial conditions, which may contribute with the scientific missions planned to visit the planet Mercury in the next few years, are presented. Frozen orbits were found, i.e., orbits with smaller variation of the orbital elements. An approach is also presented to analyze the effect of the non-sphericity of Mercury on the motion of the spacecraft. In addition, the \(J_{2}\) and \(J_{3}\) zonal terms are also considered, as well as the \(C_{22 }\) sectorial term.

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Acknowledgements

Sponsored by CNPq—Brazil. The authors are grateful to CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) and FAPESP (So Paulo Research Foundation)—Brazil for contracts 306953/2014-5, 420674/2016-0 (CNPq) and 2013/26652-4 (FAPESP).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UFRB-Centro de Ciência e Tecnologia em Energia e Sustentabilidade, Universidade Federal do Recôcavo da Bahia, CEP 44085-132, Feira de Santana, BA, Brazil

    J. P. S. Carvalho

  2. UNESP-São Paulo State University, CEP 12516-410, Guaratinguetá, SP, Brazil

    J. Cardoso dos Santos

  3. Division of Space Mechanics and Control, INPE, CEP 51512227-310, São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil

    A. F. B. A. Prado

  4. UNIFESP-Instituto de Ciência e Tecnologia, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, CEP 12231-280, São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil

    R. Vilhena de Moraes

Authors
  1. J. P. S. Carvalho
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  2. J. Cardoso dos Santos
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  3. A. F. B. A. Prado
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  4. R. Vilhena de Moraes
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. P. S. Carvalho.

Additional information

Communicated by Jose Roberto Castilho Piqueira, Elbert E N Macau, Luiz de Siqueira Martins Filho.

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Carvalho, J.P.S., Santos, J.C.d., Prado, A.F.B.A. et al. Some characteristics of orbits for a spacecraft around Mercury. Comp. Appl. Math. 37 (Suppl 1), 267–281 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40314-017-0525-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40314-017-0525-y

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