Dynamical evolution of high area-to-mass ratio debris released into GPS orbits

Abstract

A large set of simulations, including all the relevant perturbations, was carried out to investigate the long-term dynamical evolution of fictitious high area-to-mass ratio ( A/ M) objects released, with a negligible velocity variation, in each of the six orbital planes used by Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites. As with similar objects discovered in near synchronous trajectories, long lifetime orbits, with mean motions of about 2 revolutions per day, were found possible for debris characterized by extremely high area-to-mass ratios. Often the lifetime exceeds 100 years up to A/ M ∼ 45 m 2/kg, decreasing rapidly to a few months above such a threshold. However, the details of the evolution, which are conditioned by the complex interplay of solar radiation pressure and geopotential plus luni-solar resonances, depend on the initial conditions. Different behaviors are thus possible. In any case, objects like those discovered in synchronous orbits, with A/ M as high as 20–40 m 2/kg, could also survive in this orbital regime, with semi-major axes close to the semi-synchronous values, with maximum eccentricities between 0.3 and 0.7, and with significant orbit pole precessions (faster and wider for increasing values of A/ M), leading to inclinations between 30° and more than 90°.