A method for accurately determining and predicting the orbits of near-synchronous satellites is presented. The basic approach is to supplement the conventional spherical harmonics representation of the terrestrial gravity field with a forcing function having components represented by polynomial expansions about nominal values of vehicular sub-latitude, sub-longitude, and separation from the geocenter. Numerical results are presented for a variety of near-synchronous orbits with small to moderate eccentricities and inclinations. (Author)
The Determination and Prediction of Near-Synchronous Satellite Orbits Utilizing a Polynomial Force Model
1969
31 pages
Report
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English