Related papers: The Delicate Dance of Orbital Rendezvous
In this paper we present a fast method based on successive convexification for generating fuel-optimized spacecraft rendezvous trajectories in the presence of mixed-integer constraints. A recently developed paradigm of state-triggered…
Trapping of bodies by waves is extended from electromagnetism to gravity. It is shown that gravitational waves endowed with angular momentum may accumulate near its axis all kinds of cosmic debris. The trapping mechanism in both cases can…
We discovered that when a pair of small particles is optically levitated, the particles execute a dance whose motion resembles the orbits of balls being juggled. This motion lies in a plane perpendicular to the polarization of the incident…
The order and chaos of the motion near equilibrium points in the potential of a rotating highly irregular-shaped celestial body are investigated from point of view of the dynamical system theory. The positions of the non-degenerate…
The motion of two planets around a Sun-like star under the combined effects of mutual interaction and tidal dissipation is investigated. The secular behaviour of the system is analyzed using two different approaches. First, we solve the…
The paper provides a new approach to utilizing space environmental forces in time- and energy-optimal, propellant-less spacecraft rendezvous missions. Considering the nonlinear form of the relative dynamic equations, rendezvous missions are…
Luna 3 (or Lunik 3 in Russian sources) was the first spacecraft to perform a flyby of the Moon. Launched in October 1959 on a translunar trajectory with large semi-major axis and eccentricity, it collided with the Earth in late March 1960.…
This paper investigates the mission planning problem for spacecraft confronting orbital debris to achieve autonomous avoidance. Firstly, combined with the avoidance requirements, a closed-loop framework of autonomous avoidance for orbital…
Building and maintaining a space object catalog is necessary for space situational awareness. To realize this, one great challenge is uncooperative spacecraft maneuver detection because unknown maneuver events can lead to deviated orbital…
Mean motion resonances play a fundamental role in the dynamics of the small bodies of the Solar System. The last decades of the 20th century gave us a detailed description of the dynamics as well as the process of capture of small bodies in…
Today, the motion of spacecraft is still described by the classical Newtonian equations of motion plus some relativistic corrections. This approach might become cumbersome due to the increasing precision required. We use the Relativistic…
In the study of discrete dynamical systems, we typically start with a function from a space into itself, and ask questions about the properties of sequences of iterates of the function. In this paper we reverse the direction of this study.…
A metamorphic robotic system (MRS) consists of anonymous modules, each of which autonomously moves in the 2D square grid by sliding and rotation with keeping connectivity among the modules. Existing literature considers distributed…
Using the "statite," or static-satelite, concept -- an artificial satellite capable of hovering in place using a solar sail -- this work proposes to create a dynamic orbital slingshot in anticipation of Interstellar Objects (ISOs) passing…
In this paper we extend the previous work of Papaloizou \& Savonije on tidal interactions between a solar mass star and a closely orbiting giant planet which is such that the orbital and stellar spin angular momentum directions are…
Conjunction analysis and maneuver planning for spacecraft collision avoidance remains a manual and time-consuming process, typically involving repeated forward simulations of hand-designed maneuvers. With the growing density of satellites…
This study focuses on attitude and control motion of two bodies (a base-satellite and a sub-satellite) connected by an inextensible and massless tether in a circular orbit under the influence of the Earths gravitational force. The…
The problem of the two-body gravitational interaction has been solved numerically based on the classical mechanics principles. One of the bodies is a deformable three-axis ellipsoid (central body) and the other is a material point…
You have a satellite spacecraft or asteroid that moves under the gravitational influence of a massive central body and follows a Keplerian orbit around it ellipse parabola or hyperbola Given measurements of two positions in its orbit what…
The quasi-satellite (QS) phenomenon makes two celestial bodies to fly near each other (Mikkola et al. 2006) and that effect can be used also to make artificial satellites move in tandem. We consider formation flight of two or three…