PERTURBATIONS OF THE ORBITS OF ARTIFICIAL SATELLITES BY AN ATTRACTION OF EXTERNAL BODIES.

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to investigate analytically the secular as well as periodic perturbations of the orbits of artificial satellites of the Earth or the Moon, due to an attraction of external masses, by Brown's application of Delaunay's method for the stellar case of three bodies. Two families or orbital perturbations are studied in particular: namely, short-range (secular and periodic) perturbations, arising in the course of a time interval during which the motion of the disturbing third body can be ignored; and long-range perturbations, for which the longitude of the third body becomes a function of the time, but short-range perturbations can be averaged. Analytical expressions for such perturbations of all six elements of the satellite's orbit are given in terms of certain parameters which specify the magnitude of the disturbing force, and the entire analysis carried out to the first powers of these quantities. (Author)