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The modified equinoctial orbital elements are a set of orbital elements that are useful for
trajectory analysis and optimization. They are valid for circular, elliptic, and hyperbolic
orbits. These direct modified equinoctial equations exhibit no singularity for zero
eccentricity and orbital inclinations equal to 0 and 90 degrees. However, two of the
components are singular for an orbital inclination of 180 degrees.
p = a (1 − e 2 )
f = e cos (ω + Ω )
g = e sin (ω + Ω )
(1)
h = tan ( i 2 ) cos Ω
k = tan ( i 2 ) sin Ω
L = Ω +ω +θ
where
p= semiparameter
a= semimajor axis
e= orbital eccentricity
i= orbital inclination
ω = argument of perigee
Ω = right ascension of the ascending node
θ = true anomaly
L = true longitude
semimajor axis
p
a= (2a)
1 − f 2 − g2
orbital eccentricity
e= f 2 + g2 (2b)
orbital inclination
i = 2 tan −1 ( ) (
h 2 + k 2 = tan −1 2 h 2 + k 2 ,1 − h 2 − k 2 ) (2c)
page 1
argument of periapsis
Ω = tan −1 ( k , h ) (2e)
true anomaly
θ = L − ( Ω + ω ) = L − tan −1 ( g f ) (2f)
argument of latitude
In these equations an expression of the form tan −1 ( a, b ) indicates a four quadrant inverse
tangent calculation.
position vector
r
s 2 ( cos L + α cos L + 2hk sin L )
2
r
r = 2 ( sin L − α 2 sin L + 2hk cos L ) (3a)
s
2r
( h sin L −k cos L )
s2
velocity vector
1 µ
− 2 ( sin L + α 2 sin L − 2hk cos L + g − 2 f h k + α 2 g )
s p
1 µ
v = − 2 ( − cos L + α 2 cos L + 2hk sin L − f + 2 gh k + α 2 f ) (3b)
s p
2 µ
( h cos L + k sin L + f h + gk )
s2 p
page 2
where
α 2 = h2 − k 2
s2 = 1 + h2 + k 2
p
r=
w
w = 1 + f cos L + g sin L
The system of first-order modified equinoctial equations of orbital motion are given by
the following expressions
dp 2 p p
p = = ∆t
dt w µ
df p ∆ g∆
f = = ∆ r sin L + ( w + 1) cos L + f t − ( h sin L − k cos L ) n
dt µ w w
dg p ∆ g∆
g = = −∆ r cos L + ( w + 1) sin L + g t + ( h sin L − k cos L ) n
dt µ w w
dh p s2∆n
h = = cos L
dt µ 2w
dk p s2∆n
k = = sin L
dt µ 2w
dL w 1
2
p (4)
L = = µp + ( h sin L − k cos L ) ∆ n
dt p w µ
page 3
In vector form the equations of motion can be expressed as follows:
dy
y = = A (y) P + b (5)
dt
where
2p p
0 0
w µ
p p 1 p g
sin L ( w + 1) cos L + f − [h sin L − k cos L]
µ µ w µ w
− p p p f
cos L ( w + 1) sin L + g [h sin L − k cos L]
µ µ µ w
A=
p s 2 cos L
0 0
µ 2w
p s 2 sin L
0 0
µ 2w
p
0 0 [ h sin L − k cos L]
µ
and
T
w
2
b = 0 0 0 0 0 µp
p
P = ∆ r ˆi r + ∆ t ˆit + ∆ n ˆi n (6)
where ˆi r , ˆit and ˆin are unit vectors in the radial, tangential and normal directions
computed from the ECI position r and velocity vectors v according to
ˆi = r
r
r
ˆi = r × v (7)
n
r×v
ˆi = ˆi × ˆi = ( r × v ) × r
t n r
r×v r
page 4
For unperturbed two-body motion, P = 0 and the first five equations of motion are
simply p = f = g = h = k = 0 . Therefore, for two-body motion these modified
equinoctial orbital elements are constant.
g = g N ˆi N − g r î r (8)
where
ˆi = ( )
eˆ N − eˆ TN ˆi r ˆi r
− ( eˆ ˆi ) ˆi
N
T
eˆ N N r r
and
eˆ N = [0 0 1]
T
In these equations the north direction component is indicated by subscript N and the
radial direction component is subscript r.
k
µ cos φ 4
Re '
gN = −
r2
∑ Pk J k
k =2 r
(9a)
k
µ 4
R
2 ∑(
gr = − k + 1) e Pk J k (9b)
r k =2 r
where
µ = gravitational constant
r = geocentric distance of the spacecraft
Re = equatorial radius of the Earth
φ = geocentric latitude
J k = zonal gravity coefficient
Pk = k th order Legendre polynomial
For a zonal only Earth gravity model, the east component is identically zero.
a g = QT g (10)
page 5
where Q = ˆi r ˆit ˆi n .
∆ J2 =− 1− (11a)
r
2r 4
(1 + h 2
+ k )
2 2
∆ J2 =− (11c)
(1 + h 2 + k 2 )
2
n
r4
Aerodynamic Drag
The radial, tangential and normal perturbations due to aerodynamic drag are given by the
following three expressions:
1
∆ Dr = − ρ SCD vvr (12a)
2
1
∆ Dt = − ρ SCD vvt (12b)
2
∆ Dn =0 (12c)
where
ρ = atmospheric density
S = aerodynamic reference area
CD = drag coefficient
v = velocity magnitude
µ
vr = ( f sin L − g cos L )
p
µ
vt = (1 + f cos L + g sin L )
p
page 6
Secondary Body Perturbations
The general vector equation for secondary body perturbations such as the Moon or
planets is given by
n
d j sj
t = −∑ µ j 3 + 3 (13)
j =1 d j sj
In this equation, s j is the vector from the primary body to the secondary body j, µ j is the
gravitational constant of the secondary body and d j = r − s j , where r is the position
vector of the spacecraft relative to the primary body.
3 + 3qk + qk2
F ( qk ) = qk 3
(14)
(
1 + 1 + qk )
where
r T ( r − 2s k )
qk =
sTk sk
Finally, the perturbation due to secondary bodies in the modified equinoctial coordinate
system is given by
aTB = QT t (16)
where Q = ˆi r ˆit ˆi n .
Propulsive Thrust
T
aT = uˆ (17)
m
where T is the thrust, m is the spacecraft mass and uˆ = [ ur ut un ] is the unit pointing
thrust vector expressed in the spacecraft-centered radial-tangential-normal coordinate
system. The components of the unit thrust vector can also be defined in terms of the in-
plane pitch angle θ and the out-of-plane yaw angle ψ as follows:
page 7
ur = sin θ
ut = cos θ cosψ (18)
un = cos θ sinψ
Finally, the pitch and yaw angles can be determined from the components of the unit
thrust vector according to
θ = sin −1 ( ur )
(19)
ψ = tan −1
( un , ut )
The pitch angle is positive above the “local horizontal” and the yaw angle is positive in
the direction of the angular momentum vector.
The relationship between a unit thrust vector in the ECI coordinate system uˆ TECI and the
corresponding unit thrust vector in the modified equinoctial system uˆ TMEE is given by
uˆ TECI = ˆi r ˆi
t
ˆi uˆ
n TMEE (20)
where
ˆi = r ˆi = r × v ˆi = ˆi × ˆi = ( r × v ) × r
r n t n r
r r×v r×v r
rˆ
x ( hˆ × rˆ ) x
hˆ x
uˆ TECI = [Q ] uˆ TMEE = rˆy
( hˆ × rˆ ) y
hˆ y uˆ TMEE
(21)
rˆz ( hˆ × rˆ ) z
hˆ z
Finally, the transformation of the unit thrust vector in the ECI system to the modified
equinoctial coordinate system is given by
uˆ TMEE = [Q ] uˆ TECI
T
(22)
( ) ( hˆ × rˆ ) ( hˆ × rˆ )
T
uˆ TECI = hˆ × rˆ (23)
x y z
page 8
References
“Using Sparse Nonlinear Programming to Compute Low Thrust Orbit Transfers”, John T.
Betts, The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, Vol. 41, No. 3, July-September 1993,
pp. 349-371.
page 9