Nekhoroshev estimates for the orbital stability of Earth's satellites

TL;DR

This paper applies Nekhoroshev theorem to estimate the long-term orbital stability of Earth's satellites, considering perturbations like J2 and third-body effects, and identifies stability domains for various altitudes and orbital parameters.

Contribution

It develops a Hamiltonian normalization method to apply Nekhoroshev estimates to satellite orbits, extending stability analysis to realistic perturbations including J2 and third-body effects.

Findings

Stability times of thousands of years at 11000 km altitude.

Stability domains shrink with increasing altitude, vanishing beyond 20000 km.

Nekhoroshev estimates are applicable in specific non-resonant regions.

Abstract

We provide stability estimates, obtained by implementing the Nekhoroshev theorem, in reference to the orbital motion of a small body (satellite or space debris) around the Earth. We consider a Hamiltonian model, averaged over fast angles, including the $J_2$ geopotential term as well as third-body perturbations due to Sun and Moon. We discuss how to bring the Hamiltonian into a form suitable for the implementation of the Nekhoroshev theorem in the version given by P\"oschel(1993) for the `non-resonant' regime. The manipulation of the Hamiltonian includes i) averaging over fast angles, ii) a suitable expansion around reference values for the orbit's eccentricity and inclination, and iii) a preliminary normalization allowing to eliminate particular terms whose existence is due to the non-zero inclination of the invariant plane of secular motions known as the `Laplace plane'. After bringing the Hamiltonian to a suitable form, we examine the domain of applicability of the theorem in the action space, translating the result in the space of physical elements. We find that the necessary conditions for the theorem to hold are fulfilled in some non-zero measure domains in the eccentricity and inclination plane (e, i) for a body's orbital altitude (semi-major axis) up to about 20000 km. For altitudes around 11000 km we obtain stability times of the order of several thousands of years in domains covering nearly all eccentricities and inclinations of interest in applications of the satellite problem, except for narrow zones around some so-called `inclination-dependent' resonances. On the other hand, the domains of Nekhoroshev stability recovered by the present method shrink in size as the semi-major axis a increases (and the corresponding Nekhoroshev times reduce to hundreds of years), while the stability domains practically all vanish for a > 20000 km.