Generalized Flyby Trajectories over Irregular-Shaped Small Bodies

Abstract

This paper focuses on the elongated small body whose exterior potential is approximated by the rotating mass dipole. The study aims to discuss the characteristics of generalized flyby trajectories over these irregular-shaped small bodies. Different from the traditional gravity assist or swing-by trajectories, a test particle along the generalized flyby trajectory can be ejected into a hyperbolic trajectory from an elliptical orbit in a short duration or vice versa. The orbital energy variation is adopted to illustrate the dynamical behavior and obtain numerical simulations. Particularly, the name and dynamical problem of such a trajectory given in this paper are still open to further readers.

Keywords

irregular-shaped small body / rotating mass dipole / generalized flyby trajectory