Abstract
Herein we investigate the coupled orbital and rotational dynamics of two rigid bodies modelled as polyhedra, under the influence of their mutual gravitational potential. The bodies may possess any arbitrary shape and mass distribution. A method of calculating the mutual potential’s derivatives with respect to relative position and attitude is derived. Relative equations of motion for the two body system are presented and an implementation of the equations of motion with the potential gradients approach is described. Results obtained with this dynamic simulation software package are presented for multiple cases to validate the approach and illustrate its utility. This simulation capability is useful both for addressing questions in dynamical astronomy and for enabling spacecraft missions to binary asteroid systems.
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Fahnestock, E.G., Scheeres, D.J. Simulation of the full two rigid body problem using polyhedral mutual potential and potential derivatives approach. Celestial Mech Dyn Astr 96, 317–339 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10569-006-9045-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10569-006-9045-6