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An analytic method to account for drag in the Vinti Satellite theory

Author
Bonavito, N. L.
Published
Apr 1, 1974.
Physical Description
1 electronic document
Additional Creators
Watson, J. S. and Mistretta, G. D.
Online Version

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Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available.
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Summary
To retain separability in the Vinti theory of earth satellite motion when a nonconservative force such as air drag is considered, a set of variational equations for the orbital elements are introduced, and expressed as functions of the transverse, radial, and normal components of the nonconservative forces acting on the system. In this approach, the Hamiltonian is preserved in form, and remains the total energy, but the initial or boundary conditions and hence the Jacobi constants of the motion advance with time through the variational equations. In particular, the atmospheric density profile is written as a fitted exponential function of the eccentric anomaly, which adheres to tabular data at all altitudes and simultaneously reduced the variational equations to indefinite integrals with closed form evaluations. The values of the limits for any arbitrary time interval are obtained from the Vinti program.
Other Subject(s)
Collection
NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Collection.
Note
Document ID: 19740018180.
Accession ID: 74N26293.
X-932-74-99.
NASA-TM-X-70651.
Terms of Use and Reproduction
No Copyright.
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