Viable orbits for the Brazilian Lunar Mission Garatéa-L

Carvalho, Jean Paulo S. ; Casanova, Daniel ; Leão, Lucas L.

Resumen: In this work, we analyze the characteristics of the orbits around the Moon, focusing on the Brazilian mission known as Garatéa-L Project. As is known, the Moon’s gravitational field presents significant differences from that of the Earth. In the case of orbits around the Moon, it is necessary to consider high orders of the selenopotential. We show that using a selenopotential of order and degree yields results very similar to those obtained with a potential. We search for initial conditions with the highest possible inclination, still within the range of nearly frozen orbits, which are those predicted for the Garatéa-L mission. This mission is planned to have a perilune altitude of 30 km and an apolune altitude of 300 km. We found near-frozen polar orbits around the Moon by slightly modifying the perigee altitude of the nominal orbit predicted by the mission from 30 km to 125.149 km. We also found a region of inclinations of possible interest to the Garatéa-L mission that contribute to keeping the perilune argument librating and the eccentricity frozen, maintaining the 30 km perilune altitude for at least one year (near-frozen orbit).

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1140/epjs/s11734-025-01871-x

Año: 2025

Publicado en: European Physical Journal-Special Topics (2025), [9 p.]
ISSN: 1951-6355

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA/E24-23R
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MICINN/PID2020-117066GB-I00

Tipo y forma: Artículo (PostPrint)