On the dynamical stability of the Rosetta orbiter. II.

Abstract

In an orbit around a comet, a spacecraft is subject to several spin-orbit resonances. These enhanced couplings, induced by the rotation of the nucleus, by temporal variations in the outgassing pressure field and, at last, by a rotation of the probe's solar cell arrays, are systematically mapped in this paper. Using the simplified pendulum model, each resonance overlap problem is one-parametric. For the gravitational resonances, the boundary between shape stable and shape unstable cometocentric orbits is well formulated by a simple law in a parameter range which includes an adopted nominal Rosetta scenario. Stability conditions are discussed for each problem.