In this chapter the assumption of uniform rotation is removed. Many asteroids are non-uniform rotators, potentially due to several different causes. These include spin-down due to the YORP effect, which can make an asteroid more susceptible to perturbing torques, and tumbling due to a close planetary flyby, an asteroid fission event, or an impact. Comets are also believed to often be in such a spin state due to outgassing jets on the surface that are activated around every perihelion passage. Strong evidence exists for several comets being in non-uniform rotation states including Halley and Encke [149, 12]. Once in a tumbling mode, we assume that the body will approximately follow the torque-free rigid-body dynamics described earlier. While this is not exactly true, due to solar radiation pressure torques, gravitational perturbations, and internal dissipation effects, over timespans of interest for the motion of a particle or spacecraft in the asteroid frame this is a good assumption.
Complex Rotators: Asteroid 4179 Toutatis
Springer Praxis Books (formerly: Springer-Praxis Series)
2012-03-20
14 pages
Article/Chapter (Book)
Electronic Resource
English
Periodic Orbit , Orbit Element , Rotation State , Rotation Pole , Solar Radiation Pressure Engineering , Aerospace Technology and Astronautics , Space Sciences (including Extraterrestrial Physics, Space Exploration and Astronautics) , Geophysics/Geodesy , Vibration, Dynamical Systems, Control , Classical Mechanics , Automotive Engineering
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