Periodic attitude motions along planar orbits in the elliptic restricted three-body problem

A way to improve the accuracy of the three-body problem model is taking into account the eccentricity of primary attractors. Elliptic Restricted Three-Body Problem (ER3BP) is a model for studying spacecraft trajectory within the three-body problem such that the orbital eccentricity of primaries is reflected in it. As the principal cause of perturbation in the employed dynamical model, the primaries eccentricity changes the structure of orbits compared to the ideal Circular Restricted Three-Body Problem (CR3BP). It also changes the attitude behavior of a spacecraft revolving along periodic orbits in this regime. In this paper, the coupled orbit-attitude dynamics of a spacecraft in the ER3BP are exploited to find precise periodic solutions as the spacecraft is considered to be in planar orbits around Lagrangian points and Distant Retrograde Orbits (DRO). Periodic solutions are repetitious behaviors in which spacecraft whole dynamics are repeated periodically, these periodic behaviors are the main interest of this study because they are beneficial for future mission designs and allow delineation of the system’s governing dynamics. Previous studies laid the foundation for spacecraft stability analysis or studying pitch motion of spacecraft in the ER3BP regime. While in this paper, at first, initial guesses for correction algorithms were derived through verified search methods, then correction algorithms were used to refine calculated orbit-attitude periodic behaviors. Periodic orbits and full periodic solutions are portrayed and compared to previous studies and simpler models. Natural periodic solutions are valuable information eventuate in the longer functional lifetime of spacecraft. Since the problem assumption considered in this paper is much closer to real mission conditions, these results may be the means to use natural bounded motions in the actual operational environment.