Dynamics around an asteroid modeled as a mass tripole

Abstract

The orbital dynamics of a spacecraft orbiting around irregular small celestial bodies is a challenging problem. Difficulties to model the gravity field of these bodies arise from the poor knowledge of the exact shape as observed from the Earth. In order to understand the complex dynamical environment in the vicinity of irregular asteroids, several studies have been conducted using simplified models. In this work, we investigate the qualitative dynamics in the vicinity of an asteroid with an arched shape using a tripole model based on the existence of three mass points linked to each other by rods with given lengths and negligible masses. We applied our results to some real systems, namely, asteroids 8567, 243 Ida and 433 Eros and also Phobos, one of the natural satellites of Mars.