Influence of geomagnetic field models on analytical propagator for SPIN stabilized satellites / Influência de modelos de campo geomagnético em analíticos propagador de satélites estabilizados com SPIN

Abstract

 This work explores the impacts of using dipole or quadrupole models for Earth’s magnetic field when an analytical propagator calculates residual and eddy current torques on spin-stabilized satellites. Comprising the gravity gradient, solar radiation pressure, aerodynamic, and the aforementioned torques, the propagators used data from Brazilian satellites SCD1 and SCD2, provided by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE). Ranging about two decades in total, the selected simulation periods had their respective initial data propagated by both programs and then compared with actual data from the satellites, both updating the simulation with new daily data and not. The first propagator, called GSAM, which uses the dipole model to calculate the magnetic torques, was used to screen for simulation periods due to its swift running time. The second propagator uses the quadrupole model and is called GSAMQ. The mean deviations for the spin velocity, right ascension and declination angles were compared for both satellites, which showed that the programs better predict the spatial orientation of satellite SCD2 over SCD1, especially GSAMQ. It is also demonstrated that the programs’ precision heavily relies on the initial data, suggesting that a statistical approach of GSAMQ’s performance could shed more light on its accuracy.

Analytical Propagators, Artificial Satellites, Environmental Torques, Satellite Attitude.