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P. Gurfil (Technion - Israel Institute of Technology)
This paper investigates the long-period and secular dynamics of a satellite about an oblate primary while relieving the assumption that the perturbed orbit is instantaneously parameterized by osculating Keplerian orbits. The inherent freedom obtained by transforming the orbital dynamics from the Cartesian inertial space to the orbital elements space, termed gauge freedom, is utilized to nullify four planetary equations based on a newly developed averaging scheme for gauge-generalized planetary equations. It is shown that there exists an orbit representation in which the mean non-osculating perigee is stable under the oblateness perturbation and that nodal precession, apsidal rotation and epoch drift may be simultaneously nullified on the expense of secular eccentricity and inclination variations. These observations considerably expand the standard description of J2-perturbed motion using mean osculating orbital elements, which predicts secular variation nullification of semi-major axis, eccentricity and inclination only.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: mailto:pgurfil@technion.ac.il
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #2
© 2004. The American Astronomical Soceity.