Motion in General Elliptic Orbit with Respect to a Dragging and Precessing Coordinate Frame

Abstract

The full set of second-order nonlinear differential equations describing the exact motion of a spacecraft subject to drag and oblateness perturbations in general elliptic orbit, relative to a rotating reference frame which drags and precesses exactly as a given spacecraft attached to its center is derived. This attached spacecraft is itself flying a general elliptic orbit and can be considered as the passive or nonmaneuvering vehicle. The unaveraged form of the J₂ acceleration is used for both vehicles leaving this oblateness perturbation position dependent for more exacting calculations. These equations can be effectively put to use in calculating by an iterative scheme, the impulsive rendezvous maneuvers in elliptic orbit around the Earth or those planets that are either atmosphere bearing or have a dominant second zonal harmonic, or both.