Survey of Orbit Element Sets

A SURVEY of orbit element sets was conducted as part of a research and technology development task [1] which sought to develop feedback control laws and prototype tools for computing feasible, low-thrust transfers in multibody environments, where at least two celestial bodies exert significant gravitational influence on the spacecraft. One approach considered in this research effort was to use two-body element sets and their associated variational equations with the multibody effects modeled as perturbations. The goal of the survey was to identify an orbit element set that is the most natural to use in developing feedback control laws. This survey identified 22 candidate orbit element sets plus variations defined in terms of Euler angles, Euler parameters, functions of classical elements, quaternions, set-III elements, fast or slow variables, or canonical variables. The list of candidates is provided in this paper, together with a brief description of their attributes.

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