Long-term evolution of high earth orbits: effects of direct solar radiation pressure and comparison of trajectory propagators

The recent observational discovery, in high Earth trajectories (for the most part in geosynchronous orbits), of artificial objects with extremely large area-to-mass ratios (up to 25 m2/kg) stimulated the revisit of direct solar radiation pressure models, in order to assess their long-term performances in such extreme situations. For this purpose, a comprehensive set of simulations and comparisons was carried out, mainly focusing the attention on the long-term evolution of objects characterized by high area-to-mass ratios in geosynchronous, GPS, Molniya and geosynchronous transfer orbits. The topics specifically addressed in the study were the following: comparison of direct solar radiation pressure approximations and effects of the varying Sun-Earth distance (Section 2); comparison of several trajectory propagators (Section 2); dynamical effects of the Earth's shadow (Section 3); comparison of the relative importance of the relevant perturbations in geosynchronous orbit (Section 4).