TY - JOUR
T1 - Long-term frozen repeat orbits with large eccentricity under complex perturbations
AU - Nie, Tao
AU - Que, Zhijun
AU - Zhang, Shijie
AU - Ren, Jiadong
AU - Xu, Rui
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of COSPAR.
PY - 2026/2/15
Y1 - 2026/2/15
N2 - Highly-elliptical frozen repeat orbits have emerged as the optimal choice for high-latitude lunar missions due to their stable orbits and ability to repeatedly cover the same areas. However, in addition to the (Formula presented) perturbation, lunar orbits are also significantly influenced by the (Formula presented) and third-body perturbations, which cause more pronounced periodic drifts to orbital elements, posing substantial challenges to maintaining the frozen and repeat properties. To address this challenge, a relevant methodology has been proposed, which achieves simultaneous correction of orbital repeat property and preservation of the frozen property through a single numerical adjustment. It effectively eliminates the computational burden of iterative adjustments required by conventional methods. By adjusting the semi-major axis, eccentricity, and inclination of the orbit, the drift of sub-satellite point trajectory and eccentricity vector caused by unmodeled perturbations is constrained, where the sub-satellite point drift is defined as the longitude difference between consecutive ascending nodes after a repeat cycle. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method enables the design of orbits with long-term, high-precision revisits and fixed perilune. This provides a novel, robust, and feasible orbital design concept for lunar exploration missions in complex perturbation environments.
AB - Highly-elliptical frozen repeat orbits have emerged as the optimal choice for high-latitude lunar missions due to their stable orbits and ability to repeatedly cover the same areas. However, in addition to the (Formula presented) perturbation, lunar orbits are also significantly influenced by the (Formula presented) and third-body perturbations, which cause more pronounced periodic drifts to orbital elements, posing substantial challenges to maintaining the frozen and repeat properties. To address this challenge, a relevant methodology has been proposed, which achieves simultaneous correction of orbital repeat property and preservation of the frozen property through a single numerical adjustment. It effectively eliminates the computational burden of iterative adjustments required by conventional methods. By adjusting the semi-major axis, eccentricity, and inclination of the orbit, the drift of sub-satellite point trajectory and eccentricity vector caused by unmodeled perturbations is constrained, where the sub-satellite point drift is defined as the longitude difference between consecutive ascending nodes after a repeat cycle. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method enables the design of orbits with long-term, high-precision revisits and fixed perilune. This provides a novel, robust, and feasible orbital design concept for lunar exploration missions in complex perturbation environments.
KW - Frozen repeat orbits
KW - High-precision revisits
KW - Highly-elliptical orbits
KW - Numerical adjustment
KW - Third body perturbation
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105030341667
U2 - 10.1016/j.asr.2025.11.106
DO - 10.1016/j.asr.2025.11.106
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:105030341667
SN - 0273-1177
VL - 77
SP - 4909
EP - 4927
JO - Advances in Space Research
JF - Advances in Space Research
IS - 4
ER -