In this paper we develop a new numerical method to integrate the equations of motion of a celestial body. The idea is to replace the differential equation for the fast moving component by an equation for the energy per unit mass. We use a simple first-order explicit method for the approximation of the new system. It is shown that the radial error is much smaller than that of some numerical schemes. It will be of interest to have a more extensive comparison with state-of-the-art methods currently in use for long-term trajectory propagation. The evaluation of energy is also more accurate than in other known schemes. This method also conserves the energy per unit mass in the case of perturbation-free flight. The idea can be extended to higher-order methods and implicit schemes.
A New Scheme for Trajectory Propagation
J of Astronaut Sci
The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences ; 50 , 3 ; 255-268
2002-09-01
14 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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