Long Term Orbital Modeling for Objects in Geostationary Earth Orbit
Open Access
Author:
Chow, Philip
Area of Honors:
Aerospace Engineering
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
David Bradley Spencer, Thesis Supervisor Robert Graham Melton, Thesis Honors Advisor Dr. George A Lesieutre, Faculty Reader
Keywords:
Orbit Progagation Orbital Modeling Symplectic ODE45 Integrator
Abstract:
The suitability of different numerical integrators for the long term orbital modeling of a
satellite in geostationary Earth orbit is examined. The integrators used are the ODE45 Runge-
Kutta Method from MATLAB and the symplectic Euler method, assuming only spherical
harmonics of the Earth and n-body perturbations from the Sun, Moon, and other planets. Results
show that the energy drift associated with both integrators makes them unsuitable for long term
modeling, and that the symplectic Euler method does not actually maintain constant energy. A
possible factor in the energy drift of both integrators includes the model used for n-body
perturbations; future work should focus on determining the extent that this affected the results
and the steps necessary to correct the errors.
