Synchronous Satellites of Venus
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
2021-12-14 v1
Abstract
Synchronous satellites of Venus have long been thought unstable, but we use Poincare's surface of section technique to show that synchronous quasi-satellites orbiting just outside Venus' Hill sphere are quite stable, at least for centuries. Such synchrosats always remain within a few degrees of Venus' equator, and drift very slowly in longitude. These synchrosats could be useful for continuous monitoring of points on Venus' surface, such as active landforms or long-lived landers.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2112.06313,
title = {Synchronous Satellites of Venus},
author = {Anthony R. Dobrovolskis and Jose Luis Alvarellos},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2112.06313},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
Advances in Space Research 2021