Small Eccentricity Artificial Frozen Orbit Design With Transverse Continuous Low-thrust

The non-critical inclination natural frozen orbit requires that the argument of perigee is 90 degrees, the eccentricity e has a magnitude of order 1×10^-3 and the eccentricity has a corresponding relationship with inclination and semi-major axis, thus the variety of selection of the orbit parameters is greatly restricted by these rigorous requirements. This paper suggests that small eccentricity artificial frozen orbit be presented by applying transverse continuous low-thrust with constant amplitude and half orbit period switching direction, thus the rigorous requirements on orbit elements are relaxed. The transverse continuous thrust a_T used to maintain the small eccentricity artificial frozen orbit is proportion to the square root of semi-major axis and in converse proportion to eccentricity. Considering a_T near critical inclination, it is proportional to the displaced inclination Δi, and the fuel used to maintain the orbit is small. Moreover the transformational relation between qusai-mean orbit elements and instantaneous orbit elements should be considered during the simulation.