Analysis of dynamic ephemeris and physical libration of the Moon in order to create a lunar navigational system

Abstract

© 2018, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved. Currently, there are a number of projects on robotic and manned exploration of the Moon are being developed. With this purpose, the space agencies pay particular attention to providing coordinate and time support for the upcoming space missions. In particular, Roskosmos is planning to extend GLONASS navigational system to the lunar orbit. Construction of navigational selenocentric systems implies significant development and refinement of the physical libration of the Moon (PLM) numerical theory that defines position of the lunar axes of inertia in relation to the mean ecliptic. In the absence of reliable PLM theory coordinate and time support for the lunar space missions does not have the required accuracy. The present work is mainly concerned with the construction of PLM theory and analysis of its reliability. The authors’ algorithm of building PLM theory and calculating lunar orbit parameters is described. As a result, a numerical PLM theory is developed using DE421 ephemeris. The accuracy of the PLM theory has been assessed by analyzing its residual differences on the basis of comparison with corresponding theories by Rambaux, Williams (Rambaux, N., et al.1, Rambaux, N., et al.2).