LEO intermediary propagation as a feasible alternative to Brouwer's gravity solution

TL;DR

This paper compares Brouwer's gravity solution with Deprit's second-order radial intermediary for low earth orbit propagation, demonstrating the intermediary's efficiency as an alternative analytical method for orbits with low eccentricity.

Contribution

It introduces the use of Deprit's second-order radial intermediary as a feasible and efficient alternative to Brouwer's solution for low earth orbit propagation.

Findings

Intermediary solution is efficient for low eccentricity orbits.

Intermediary provides comparable accuracy to Brouwer's solution.

Suitable for analytical propagation of non-impact low earth orbits.

Abstract

The performance of Brouwer's gravity solution is compared with Deprit's second-order radial intermediary. Taking the main problem of the artificial satellite as the test model, that is perturbations are limited to the effects of the second zonal harmonic, it is demonstrated that the intermediary solution provides an efficient alternative for the analytical propagation of low earth orbits in a range determined by non-impact orbits with eccentricities below one tenth.