Orbital mission analysis for a lunar mapping satellite Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • 1994 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved. Using a frozen orbit concept, we establish a new lunar mapping orbit which is near circular, near polar, near constant low altitude, and near sun-synchronous. A proper orbit is one whose mean elements are constant, except for uniform precession of the line of nodes and periapsis over a month, and periodic element variations are suitably small. With the INT lunar gravity model, we find a family frozen orbits that are near polar, so global coverage can be achieved in one month. This family of frozen orbits yields an attractive set of lunar mapping orbits with 100 km altitude and good control over sunlight conditions.

published proceedings

  • Astrodynamics Conference, 1994

author list (cited authors)

  • Park, S. Y., & Junkins, J. L.

complete list of authors

  • Park, SY||Junkins, JL

publication date

  • January 1994