Orbital Elements Evolution Due to a Perturbing Body in an Inclined Elliptical Orbit

Abstract

This paper intends to highlight the effect of the third-body in an inclined orbit on a spacecraft orbiting the primary mass. To achieve this goal, a new origin of coordinate is introduced in the primary and the X-axis toward the node of the spacecraft. The disturbing function is expanded up to the second order using Legendre polynomials. A double-averaged analytical model is exploited to produce the evolutions of mean orbital elements as smooth curves.

Keywords

• Third-body perturbations
• averaged model
• long period perturbations