Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) Satellite and Orbital Decay
Kaveri Sinha Mahapatra
Kaveri Sinha Mahapatra, North Point Senior Secondary Boarding School, Calcutta (West Bengal), India.
Manuscript received on 27 September 2022 | Revised Manuscript received on 02 October 2022 | Manuscript Accepted on 15 October 2022 | Manuscript published on 30 October 2022 | PP: 88-91 | Volume-12 Issue-1, October 2022 | Retrieval Number: 100.1/ijeat.A38491012122 | DOI: 10.35940/ijeat.A3849.1012122
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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: In this article we present a simple but elegant numerical calculation to study the motion of a low earth orbiting (LEO) satellite in gravitational potential and under the influence of quadratic drag force. We solve a set of coupled differential equations to calculate the instantaneous position and velocity of the satellite and calculate the change in radial distance for different aerodynamic coefficients and altitude. We validate our numerical results with theoretical result in the high altitude where the density of air and consequently the drag force is minimum. However the LEO orbits placed in the range of 200 to 400 km faces significant effect of drag force. Satellites at an altitude of 200 km quickly decay and re-entry to earth’s atmosphere occurs. We finally do a short numerical calculation with the parameters of ISS satellite at an altitude of 400 km and compare with the existing results.
Keywords: Aerodynamic Coefficient, ISS Satellite, LEO Satellite, Quadratic Drag,
Scope of the Article: Radar and Satellite