Fourth order expansions of the luni-solar gravity perturbations along rotating axes for trajectory optimization

Abstract

A fourth order extension of the analytic form of the accelerations due to the luni-solar gravity perturbations along rotating axes is presented. These derivations are carried out in order to increase the accuracy of the dynamic modeling of perturbed optimal low-thrust transfers between general elliptic orbits, and enhance the fidelity of trajectory optimization software used in simulations and mission analyses. A set of rotating axes attached to the thrusting spacecraft is used such that both the thrust and perturbation accelerations due to Earth's geopotential and the luni-solar gravity are mathematically resolved along these axes prior to numerical integration of the actual trajectory. This Gaussian form of the state as well as the adjoint differential equations form a set of equations that are readily integrated and an iterative process is used to achieve convergence to a desired transfer. This analysis further reveals that further extensions to higher orders, say to the fifth order and beyond, are not needed to extract even more accuracy in the solutions because the minimum-time transfer solutions become fully stabilized in the sense that they do not exhibit any differences beyond a fraction of a second, or at most a few seconds even in the more extreme cases of very large orbits with apogee heights around 100,000 km with strong lunar influence.