Flight dynamics in the gravitational fields of irregular asteroids

Junfeng Li, Xiangyuan Zeng

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Asteroid exploration is one of the main topics of deep space exploration, and has great scientific significance. Due to the irregular gravitational field of most asteroids, dynamical behaviors of spacecraft close to them are very complicated. Affected by the central gravity, the perturbing forces from the fast spin of the irregular shapes of asteroids, the solar radiation pressure force, etc., the spacecraft easily collide with the asteroids or escape from them. In this article, an overview of the status of asteroid research and the irregular gravitational field modeling methods is given. Particularly, this article focuses on the dynamic characteristics of irregular gravitational fields, including equilibrium points, local manifolds, natural periodic orbits and body-fixed hovering flights, and tries to propose new research directions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)429-451
Number of pages23
JournalAdvances in Mechanics
Volume47
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 24 Feb 2017

Keywords

  • Asteroid exploration
  • Body-fixed hovering
  • Irregular gravitational field
  • Local manifold
  • Periodic orbits

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