The growth of the population of space debris in the geostationary ring and the resulting threat to active satellites require insight into the dynamics of uncontrolled objects in the region. A Monte Carlo simulation analyzed the sensitivity to initial conditions of the long-term evolution of geostationary spacecraft near an unstable point of the geopotential, where irregular behavior (e.g., transitions between long libration and continuous circulation) occurs. A statistical analysis unveiled sudden transitions from order to disorder, interspersed with intervals of smooth evolution. There is a periodicity of approximately half a century in the episodes of disorder, suggesting a connection with the precession of the orbital plane, due to Earth’s oblateness and lunisolar perturbations. The third-degree harmonics of the geopotential also play a vital role. They introduce an asymmetry between the unstable equilibrium points, enabling the long libration mode. The unpredictability occurs just in a small fraction of the precession cycle, when the inclination is close to zero. A simplified model including only gravity harmonics up to degree 3 and the Earth and moon in circular coplanar orbits is capable of reproducing most features of the high-fidelity simulation.


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    Title :

    Statistical Study of Uncontrolled Geostationary Satellites near an Unstable Equilibrium Point


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2023-07-28


    Size :

    10 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English