Orbit Mechanics About Asteroids and Comets

Space missions to small solar system bodies such as asteroids and comets must deal with multiple perturbations acting on the spacecraft. These include strong perturbations from the gravity field and solar tide, but for small bodies, the most important perturbations may arise from solar radiation pressure acting on the spacecraft. Previous research has generally investigated the effect of the gravity field, solar tide, and solar radiation pressure acting on a spacecraft trajectory about an asteroid in isolation and has not considered their joint effect. In this paper, a more general theoretical discussion of the joint effects of these forces will be given. Specific criteria are found for when it is possible for a spacecraft to orbit about a small body in a bound orbit. In the case where such hound motion is possible, a general solution for the averaged motion of a spacecraft subject to solar radiation pressure perturbations is given. Finally, interactions between solar radiation pressure and gravity field perturbations are investigated.