title: Dynamics of space particles and spacecrafts passing by the atmosphere of the Earth.
abstract: The present research studies the motion of a particle or a spacecraft that comes from an orbit around the Sun, which can be elliptic or hyperbolic, and that makes a passage close enough to the Earth such that it crosses its atmosphere. The idea is to measure the Sun-particle two-body energy before and after this passage in order to verify its variation as a function of the periapsis distance, angle of approach, and velocity at the periapsis of the particle. The full system is formed by the Sun, the Earth, and the particle or the spacecraft. The Sun and the Earth are in circular orbits around their center of mass and the motion is planar for all the bodies involved. The equations of motion consider the restricted circular planar three-body problem with the addition of the atmospheric drag. The initial conditions of the particle or spacecraft (position and velocity) are given at the periapsis of its trajectory around the Earth.
authors.affiliation: Grupo de Dinâmica Orbital e Planetologia, Universidade Estadual Paulista, FEG/UNESP, 12516-410 Guaratinguetá, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Vivian Martins
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Gomes
authors.affiliation: Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE), 12227-010 São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Antonio Fernando Bertachini de Almeida
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Prado
authors.affiliation: Astronomical Observatory Institute, Faculty of Physics, Adam Mickiewicz University, 60-286 Poznan, Poland.
authors.forename: Justyna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Golebiewska
mesh_terms: D001272:Atmosphere; D018534:Earth, Planet; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009038:Motion; D018531:Spacecraft / Q000706:statistics & numerical data