Effects of Albedo and Oblateness in the Bi-Circular Restricted Four-Body Problem

Abstract

In this paper, a bicircular model describing motion of a spacecraft around the Sun–Earth–Moon system is studied. The impact of important characterizations such as radiation from the Sun, the Earth’s and Moon’s Albedo and oblateness of the Moon are all included and analysed​ in this work. This quantitative investigation shows how significant the reflective property of the Earth and its Moon affect the existence of the system’s libration points as well as the stability of motion of the spacecraft about the libration points. The Albedo phenomenon is seen to have dominant effect on the location of the libration points of the spacecraft than the perturbation due to oblateness. It is revealed by the Poincare Surface of Section that the system exhibits chaotic behaviour as it is sensitive to change in initial conditions.

Keywords

• Albedo effect
• Oblateness
• Sun–Earth–Moon system
• Stability
• Chaos