Search results for "Elliptic orbit"
showing 4 items of 4 documents
Optimal Starting Conditions for the Rendezvous Maneuver, Part 1: Optimal Control Approach
2008
We consider the three-dimensional rendezvous between two spacecraft: a target spacecraft on a circular orbit around the Earth and a chaser spacecraft initially on some elliptical orbit yet to be determined. The chaser spacecraft has variable mass, limited thrust, and its trajectory is governed by three controls, one determining the thrust magnitude and two determining the thrust direction. We seek the time history of the controls in such a way that the propellant mass required to execute the rendezvous maneuver is minimized. Two cases are considered: (i) time-to-rendezvous free and (ii) time-to-rendezvous given, respectively equivalent to (i) free angular travel and (ii) fixed angular trave…
High order normal form construction near the elliptic orbit of the Sitnikov problem
2011
We consider the Sitnikov problem; from the equations of motion we derive the approximate Hamiltonian flow. Then, we introduce suitable action–angle variables in order to construct a high order normal form of the Hamiltonian. We introduce Birkhoff Cartesian coordinates near the elliptic orbit and we analyze the behavior of the remainder of the normal form. Finally, we derive a kind of local stability estimate in the vicinity of the periodic orbit for exponentially long times using the normal form up to 40th order in Cartesian coordinates.
Signature of the presence of a third body orbiting around XB 1916-053
2015
The ultra-compact dipping source \object{XB 1916-053} has an orbital period of close to 50 min and a companion star with a very low mass (less than 0.1 M$_{\odot}$). The orbital period derivative of the source was estimated to be $1.5(3) \times 10^{-11}$ s/s through analysing the delays associated with the dip arrival times obtained from observations spanning 25 years, from 1978 to 2002. The known orbital period derivative is extremely large and can be explained by invoking an extreme, non-conservative mass transfer rate that is not easily justifiable. We extended the analysed data from 1978 to 2014, by spanning 37 years, to verify whether a larger sample of data can be fitted with a quadra…
Averaging and optimal control of elliptic Keplerian orbits with low propulsion
2006
This article deals with the optimal transfer of a satellite between Keplerian orbits using low propulsion. It is based on preliminary results of Geffroy [Generalisation des techniques de moyennation en controle optimal, application aux problemes de rendez-vous orbitaux a poussee faible, Ph.D. Thesis, Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse, France, Octobre 1997] where the optimal trajectories are approximated using averaging techniques. The objective is to introduce the appropriate geometric framework and to complete the analysis of the averaged optimal trajectories for energy minimization, showing in particular the connection with Riemannian problems having integrable geodesics.