ON THE CRITICAL INCLINATION IN SATELLITE THEORY

Abstract

The long-range perturbations of an artificial satellite are investigated in the vicinity of the critical inclination, considering the effect of the second and fourth zonal harmonics in the earth's gravitational field. The traditional remedy to avoid the small divisor by developing into powers of square root of J sub 2 instead of J sub 2 fails even in this relatively simple case. A more involved converging development is given to represent the trajectories. The qualitative properties of the trajectories alter when the eccentricity at the critical inclination becomes smaller than a quantity of the order square root of J sub 2. For the case of small eccentricities the use of Poincare type variables is convenient. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 14, 1962
Accession Number
AD0274347

Entities

People

  • Imre G. Izsak

Organizations

  • Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Artificial Satellites
  • Eccentricity
  • Gravitational Fields
  • Harmonics
  • Mathematics
  • Orbits
  • Perturbations
  • Spacecraft Orbits
  • Square Roots
  • Trajectories

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Calculus or Mathematical Analysis
  • Control Systems Engineering.
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Orbital Debris