Orbits of artificial planetary satellites in the neighborhood of the critical inclination

Abstract

Recent space missions show interest in the exploration of lunar satellites of our solar system taking advantage of stable points / orbits, for example, to perform maneuvers with minimum fuel consumption. It is known that when considering in the potential due to non-uniform mass distribution of the central body only secular terms up to the order of coefficient J2, the system of equations describing the orbital motion of an artificial satellite is analytically integrable. In this case it is also verified that the pericenter of the orbit does not precess when the inclination is about 63 °, 43 and such inclination is called "critical inclination". When other potential terms are considered the orbital inclination and the pericenter, they depend on the longitude of the ascending node and oscillate around a certain value. The main objective of this project is the analysis of the stability of orbits of space satellites orbiting planetary satellites in the neighborhood of the critical inclination