Special Session 38: Recent advances in the n-body problem

Melnikov Method for Non-Conservative Perturbations of the Restricted Three-Body Problem

Marian Gidea
Yeshiva University
USA
Co-Author(s):    Rafael de la Llave; Maxwell Musser
Abstract:
We study the effect of small, time-dependent, non-conservative perturbations on homoclinic orbits to a normally hyperbolic invariant manifold in the planar circular restricted three-body problem. The homoclinic orbits can be described via the scattering map, which gives the future asymptotics of an orbit as a function of the past asymptotics. We add a time-dependent, non-conservative perturbation, and provide explicit formulas, in terms of convergent integrals, for the perturbed scattering map. The motivation of this work comes from astrodynamics. Low-energy space missions are often designed to follow hyperbolic invariant manifolds at constant energy. Applying an orbital maneuver amounts to adding a time-dependent non-conservative perturbation. We are interested in quantifying the effect of the maneuver on the orbit.