Extended-body effects and rocket-free orbital maneuvering

Abraham I. Harte; Michael T. Gaffney

doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2020.09.038

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arXiv · 2002.10922

Extended-body effects and rocket-free orbital maneuvering

Abraham I. Harte·Michael T. Gaffney

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Abstract

The trajectory of a spherical object which falls freely in a gravitational field is fixed by its initial position and velocity. However, an object which can control its shape can also control its motion: Except where forbidden by symmetries and their associated conservation laws, a shape-changing (but rocket-free) spacecraft can have complete control over its trajectory. We discuss a general formalism which allows rocket-free maneuvers to be understood without constructing detailed interior models. A spacecraft's interior is abstracted to the specification of a quadrupole moment, and in some cases, it is only a single eigenvalue of that moment which is relevant. For orbits around a spherically-symmetric mass, we show that appropriately varying the relevant eigenvalue allows the energy and eccentricity of an orbit to be increased or decreased and its apsides to be rotated arbitrarily. Strategies are identified which optimize these maneuvers. In other contexts, we show that extended-body effects can be used to stabilize orbits which would otherwise be unstable.

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Abraham I. Harte, Michael T. Gaffney. 2020-07-06. Extended-body effects and rocket-free orbital maneuvering. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2020.09.038

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