Planetary Satellite Orbiters: Applications for the Moon

Low-altitude, near-polar orbits are very desirable as science orbits for missions to planetary satellites, such as the Earth's Moon. in this paper, we present an analytical theory with numerical simulations to study the orbital motion of lunar low-altitude artificial satellite. We consider the problem of an artificial satellite perturbed by the nonuniform distribution of the mass of the Moon (J(2)-J(5), J(7), and C-22). the conditions to get frozen orbits are presented. Using an approach that considers the single-averaged problem, we found families of periodic orbits for the problem of an orbiter travelling around the Moon, where frozen orbits valid for long periods of time are found. A comparison between the models for the zonal and tesseral harmonics coefficients is presented.Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Universidade Federal de São Paulo UNIFESP, Inst Ciencia & Tecnol, BR-12331280 Sao Jose Dos Campos, SP, BrazilUniv Estadual Paulista UNESP, BR-12516410 Guaratingueta, SP, BrazilINPE, Div Space Mech & Control, BR-12227010 Sao Jose Dos Campos, SP, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo UNIFESP, Inst Ciencia & Tecnol, BR-12331280 Sao Jose Dos Campos, SP, BrazilFAPESP: 2007/04413-7FAPESP: 2006/04997-6CNPq: 300952/2008-2Web of Scienc