SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 )

Dr. Sreenadh Chevula, Ph.D. SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 )

SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Module III Satellite Injection and Satellite Orbit Perturbations

• General Aspects Of Satellite Injections,

• Satellite Orbit Transfer, Various Cases,
• Orbit Deviations Due To Injection Errors,
• Special And General Perturbations.
• Cowell’s Method,
• Encke’s Method And Method Of Vibrations Of Orbital Element.
• Generalperturbations Approach.

Dr. Sreenadh Chevula, Ph.D. SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Slide Number 1 of

SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Module III Satellite Injection and Satellite Orbit Perturbations
3.5 Perturbed Satellite Orbits
From previous units we know that,
• the motion of a body Pt relative to a nonrotating reference frame with its origin at the center of
mass of a body Pk.
• We assumed that both bodies could be regarded as point masses and that the only force acting
upon Pt was due to the mutual gravitational attraction.
• We found that the trajectory of Pi was a conic section, a so-called Keplerian orbit.
• In reality, where Pi represents a planet moving around the Sun, or a satellite orbiting the Earth,
there will be other forces acting upon Pi.
• The orbits of planets and satellites can be approximated very well by conic sections. The actual
trajectories of these bodies are therefore called perturbed Keplerian orbits.
• For this perturbed Keplerian motion, no closed form analytical solution can be obtained.
• The approximate solution of the equations of motion of Pf under the influence of a main
gravitational force and perturbing forces is one of the most developed, and most interesting,
branches of celestial mechanics.

Dr. Sreenadh Chevula, Ph.D. SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Slide Number 1 of

SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Module III Satellite Injection and Satellite Orbit Perturbations
The most important perturbing forces acting on artificial Earth satellites are due to:
• Asphericity of the Earth, aerodynamic effects, lunar and solar attraction, solar radiation and
electromagnetic effects.
Asphericity of the Earth.
• Generally, this asphericity yields a very important perturbing force for satellite orbits.
• As the Earth's mass distribution is not perfectly spherical symmetric, gravitational force
components normal to the radius vector of the satellite will be present.
• Because of these components, the actual orbit will deviate from a Keplerian orbit. It will be clear
that the effects of the asphericity decrease with increasing distance from the Earth.
• For, at distances from the Earth which are large with respect to the dimensions of the Earth, we
can approximate the Earth's gravitational field by that of a point mass.
Aerodynamic effects.
• The motion of a satellite through the upper regions of the atmosphere generates aerodynamic
forces. The major force will be a drag force, acting opposite to the satellite's velocity vector with
respect to the atmosphere, but lift and side forces will occur too.

Dr. Sreenadh Chevula, Ph.D. SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Slide Number 1 of

SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Module III Satellite Injection and Satellite Orbit Perturbations
• The deceleration of the satellite due to air drag can be expressed by the well-known aerodynamic
relationship

• where ρ is the air density, V is the satellite's velocity relative to the atmosphere, M is the satellite's
mass, S is a reference area of the satellite and CD is a drag coefficient based on that area.
• At satellite altitudes, the flow is of the free -molecular type. Then, the drag is determined by the
mechanism of molecular reflection at the surfaces of the satellite.
• the uncertainties in the drag coefficient and the air density, we can only roughly estimate the
magnitude of the aerodynamic forces.
• The effects of the aerodynamic forces strongly diminish as the orbital altitude increases.
• They dissipate their orbital energy and their orbital altitudes decrease, through which they enter
denser parts of the atmosphere, where the drag becomes larger and larger.
• Ultimately, they burn in the low Earth's atmosphere. Sometimes, parts of satellites survive the re-
entry and impact on the Earth's surface.

Dr. Sreenadh Chevula, Ph.D. SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Slide Number 1 of

SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Module III Satellite Injection and Satellite Orbit Perturbations
Lunar and solar attraction.
• These effects increase with increasing distance from the Earth, and lunar and solar attractions
become the major sources of perturbations above geostationary orbital altitudes.
Radiation pressure.
• A satellite about the Earth is also subjected to direct solar radiation, solar radiation reflected by the
Earth (albedo), and radiation emitted by the Earth itself. In quantum mechanics, light is regarded as
a flow of photons, which, among others, possess a momentum.
• If these photons hit the satellite's surface, and are partially reflected, they impart a momentum to the
satellite, which results in the so-called radiation pressure
• As the radiation pressure in the vicinity of the Earth is extremely small, it will only have a
substantial effect on the orbits of balloon-type satellites, i.e. satellites with a small mass/area ratio.
• In those cases, the effects of radiation pressure may be very significant, and should certainly be
taken into account.

Dr. Sreenadh Chevula, Ph.D. SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Slide Number 1 of

SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Module III Satellite Injection and Satellite Orbit Perturbations
Electromagnetic effects.
• As the atmosphere at satellite altitudes is partly ionized, the possibility exists that a satellite acquires
an electrical potential.
• As there is also a magnetic field, electromagnetic forces will be generated. However, generally, these
effects are negligible.
• In the following, we will assume the perturbing forces to be known, and we will only study some
methods to compute their effects on the orbit of a satellite.

3.5.1 Special and general perturbations

If the motion of a satellite is described relative to a non-rotating geocentric equatorial reference frame
and perturbing forces are taken into account, the equation of motion can be written in the form
(3.14)
where R, the perturbing or disturbing potential, includes all perturbing forces which can be expressed by
a potential function, and a stands for all perturbing forces which cannot be written as the gradient of a
scalar
Dr. function.
Sreenadh Chevula, Ph.D. SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Slide Number 1 of
SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Module III Satellite Injection and Satellite Orbit Perturbations
• In general, Eq. (3.14) cannot be solved in a closed form and we have to resort to numerical
techniques or to approximate analytical solutions. In the first case, we speak of special
perturbations; in the second case, we deal with general perturbations.
• Special perturbations methods generate just one special trajectory for a definite satellite, given its
unique initial conditions.
• A determination of the orbit is made by means of a numerical step-by-step process.
• The various methods of special perturbations are usually classified according to the formulation of
the equations to be integrated.
• The three classical methods are known as Cowell’s method, Encke's method and the method of
variation of orbital elements
• General perturbations cover the analytical methods in which the perturbing accelerations are
expanded into series and integrated termwise.
• The obtain solution of the differential equations of motion in the form of analytical expressions,
describing the change of the orbit as a function of time for a particular perturbing force.

Dr. Sreenadh Chevula, Ph.D. SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Slide Number 1 of

SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Module III Satellite Injection and Satellite Orbit Perturbations
• The most important classical general perturbations method is the method of variation of orbital
elements, which was already mentioned in connection with special perturbations.
• For the analytical integration, many processes are known, for example: the method of successive
approximations, Taylor series expansions, multivariable asymptotic expansions and averaging.
• Comparing the special and general perturbations methods, one can make some remarks about their
respective advantages and disadvantages.
• Obviously, the methods of special perturbations are directly applicable to any orbit and to any
perturbing force. As these are purely numerical methods, we have the problem of accumulated error
and these methods are not well suited to long-term orbit predictions.
• Moreover, these methods require the computation of the coordinates and velocity components of the
satellite at all intermediate epochs prior to the epoch of interest, leading to long integration times.
• An advantage of general perturbations methods is that once the analytical expressions, describing
the effects of the perturbing force, are available, the computation of a perturbed orbit for various
initial conditions is much faster.

Dr. Sreenadh Chevula, Ph.D. SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Slide Number 1 of

SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Module III Satellite Injection and Satellite Orbit Perturbations
• Their main advantage, however, is that general perturbations methods, and in particular the method of
variation of orbital elements, clearly reveal the source of perturbations from orbital data.
• Major achievements of the methods of general perturbations were the discovery of the planet Neptune
in 1846, through the observed orbital perturbations of Uranus, and, more recently, the demonstration
of the Earth's pear-shape in 1959, through the analysis of the orbital data of the Vanguard 1 satellite
3.6 Cowell's method
• The simplest method for the computation of perturbed satellite orbits is Cowell's method.
• originally, this method only refers to a particular integration scheme in rectangular coordinates, the
name is now used for all direct numerical integrations of the equations of motion. These equations
are written in the form (3.15) where at represents the total acceleration

(3.16)
• This method thus makes no use of the fact that the actual trajectory can be approximated by a conic
section, and we integrate numerically the equations of motion in their elementary form.
Dr. Sreenadh Chevula, Ph.D. SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Slide Number 1 of
SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Module III Satellite Injection and Satellite Orbit Perturbations
• The simplicity of the method makes it an extremely useful, flexible and attractive method for
computer calculations.
• A disadvantage of the method is that, as the total acceleration can vary considerably over an orbital
revolution, usually small integration steps are required to maintain accuracy.
• In addition, a large number of significant figures should be kept in the numerical integration process,
in order not to lose the effects of the smaller accelerations.
3.7 Encke's method
• Encke's method makes use of a reference orbit, and only the deviations from that orbit are integrated
numerically.
• For simplicity, we will assume that this reference orbit is a Keplerian one, but this restriction is by no
means a necessity. The equation of motion of a satellite is written in the form (3.17)
• For the reference Keplerian orbit, we have (3.18)

• where ρ denotes the position vector of the satellite, if the satellite would follow the unperturbed
reference orbit. We now assume that at some instant the following equalities hold:
Dr. Sreenadh Chevula, Ph.D. SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Slide Number 1 of
SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Module III Satellite Injection and Satellite Orbit Perturbations
(3.19)

• Because the reference orbit is a Keplerian one, we can solve Eq. (3.18) analytically to obtain
position and velocity in the reference orbit at any time.
• For the deviation of the actual trajectory from the reference orbit at a time t, we write (3.20)
• By differentiating Eq. (3.20) twice with respect to time, and subsequent substitution of Eq. (3.17) and
Eq. (3.18), we obtain (3.21)

• Integration of this equation would lead to the deviations of position and velocity relative to their
values in the reference orbit. The latter are computed analytically, and the actual position and
𝑑ρ Δr
velocity at a given instant t are simply obtained by adding ρ and Δr and , and respectively.
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡
• A practical numerical difficulty arises from the form of the first term on the right-hand side of Eq.
(3.21).
• This term is the difference of two nearly equal, and small quantities, which is always undesirable in
numerical computations.
Dr. Sreenadh Chevula, Ph.D. SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Slide Number 1 of
SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Module III Satellite Injection and Satellite Orbit Perturbations
Therefore, Eq. (3.21) is mostly written in another form. First, we transform Eq. (3.21) into

(3.22).
We then write (3.23).

Defining a quantity q as (3.24).

Eq. (3.22) can also be written as (3.25).

• Using this relation, we find (3.26).

• where f is a function of q. The form qf(q) can be expanded into a binomial series, as was first done by
Encke,
(3.27).

• but it can also be written as

(3.28).

Dr. Sreenadh Chevula, Ph.D. SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Slide Number 1 of

SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Module III Satellite Injection and Satellite Orbit Perturbations
• As, according to Eq. (3.25), q is very small, we note that the quantity f is about 3. By substituting Eq.
(3.20) and Eq. (3.22) into Eq. (3.26), we finally obtain
(3.29).
• This form of the equation of relative motion is mostly used when Encke's method is applied.
• As in Encke's method only the perturbing accelerations are integrated numerically to obtain
deviations from a reference orbit, usually the integration step can be chosen larger than in Cowell's
method.
• However, at each integration step, Encke's method involves more computing time.
• Nevertheless, for small but strongly varying perturbing forces, in most cases Encke's method yields
a more efficient computing process than the method of Cowell.
• If the perturbations accumulate, eventually Δr can become large and the Encke formulation loses its
advantage over the simpler Cowell formulation.

Dr. Sreenadh Chevula, Ph.D. SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Slide Number 1 of

SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Module III Satellite Injection and Satellite Orbit Perturbations
3.8 Method of variation of orbital elements
• The theory of the method of variation of orbital elements also called the method of variation of
parameters or the method of variation of constants.
• The basic concept in this theory is the introduction of a so-called osculating orbit.
• We know that the six orbital elements a, e, i ω, Ω, τ are constant for Keplerian orbits, and are
uniquely determined by the position, r, and the velocity, V, of the satellite at some instant.
• Now in Method of variation of orbital elements, we generalize these results and define an imaginary
conic section, such that at any time the same transformation relations hold between position and
velocity in the perturbed orbit and the orbital elements of this imaginary conic section.
• Because the perturbed orbit is not a Keplerian one, the orbital elements obtained in this way are no
longer constant, but will vary with time. The imaginary conic section is called the osculating orbit; its
elements are the osculating orbital elements.
• Note that the osculating orbit for time t is tangent to the actual trajectory at time t, and that the
velocity at the point of osculation is the same for both the actual trajectory and the osculating orbit.

Dr. Sreenadh Chevula, Ph.D. SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Slide Number 1 of

SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Module III Satellite Injection and Satellite Orbit Perturbations
• To visualize such an osculating orbit, one may think of the satellite as passing continuously from one
Keplerian orbit to another.
• At any time, this Keplerian orbit is the orbit the satellite were to follow, if all perturbations disappeared
instantaneously.
• The concept of an osculating Keplerian orbit is extremely useful. First, any change in the osculating
elements can be ascribed directly to perturbing forces, in contrast with, for example, rectangular
coordinates of the satellite which also vary in a Keplerian orbit due to the satellite's orbital motion.
• Secondly, the osculating elements possess a clear geometric significance and the effects of perturbing
forces on the orbit can be understood physically.
• We will assume, for the sake of simplicity, that the osculating orbit is always elliptic.
• Moreover, we will first restrict ourselves to perturbing forces which can be derived from a disturbing
potential

Dr. Sreenadh Chevula, Ph.D. SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Slide Number 1 of

SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Module III Satellite Injection and Satellite Orbit Perturbations

Dr. Sreenadh Chevula, Ph.D. SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Slide Number 1 of

SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Module III Satellite Injection and Satellite Orbit Perturbations

Dr. Sreenadh Chevula, Ph.D. SPACE MECHANICS (EAS457 ) Slide Number 1 of