Vol 55, No 4 (2017)

This work presents a review of studies of the Martian magnetic fields during the early Soviet missions to Mars in 1971–1974, which never approached Mars by closer than 1000 km before the experiment with the Magnetometer/Electronic Reflectometer (MAG/ER) on board the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, which could descend to altitudes of 80–100 km. At present, the experiment with the magnetometer (MAG) onboard the American MAVEN spacecraft adds new data, but the map of distribution of remnant magnetic fields of Mars and the picture of their interaction with the solar wind are already formed and, at its core, obviously, will not be revised. Thus, it would be very instructive to consider the following in detail: (a) what is already known regarding the features and distribution of remnant magnetic fields on Mars; (b) how they control the interaction of solar wind with a weakly magnetized planet (Mars); and (c) what is its distinction from another nonmagnetized planet (Venus).

We have analyzed the orbital disturbed spacecraft motion near an asteroid. The equations of the asteroidocentric spacecraft motion have been used with regard to three perturbations from celestial bodies, the asteroid’s nonsphericity, and solar radiation pressure. It has been shown that the orbital parameters of the main spacecraft and a small satellite with a radio beacon can be selected such that the orbits are rather stable for a fairly long period of time, i.e., a few weeks for the main spacecraft with an orbit initial radius of ~0.5 km and a few years before approaching Apophis with the Earth in 2029, for a small satellite at an orbit initial radius of ~1.5 km. The initial orientation of the spacecraft orbital plane perpendicular to the sunward direction is optimal from the point of view of the stability of the spacecraft flight near an asteroid.

The problem of calculating the parameters of maneuvering a spacecraft as it approaches a large object of space debris (LOSD) in close near-circular noncoplanar orbits has been considered. In [1–4], the results of analyzing the problem of the flyby of the separated LOSD groups have been presented. It has been assumed that a collector spacecraft approaches the LOSD and captures it or it is inserted into the nozzle of a small spacecraft that has a proper propulsion system (PS). However, in these papers, the flight from one object to another was only analyzed and the problem of approaching to LOSD with a given accuracy was not considered. This paper is a supplement to the cycle of papers [1–4]. It is assumed that, the final stage of approaching the LOSD is implemented by maneuvering in many orbits (up to several dozens) with low-thrust engines, but the PS operating time is fairly small compared with the orbit period in order to make it possible to use impulse approximation in the calculations.

The results of updating the parameters of motion of the Spektr-R spacecraft at the end of 2016 have shown that, in January 2018, with a probability close to unity, the condition that a spacecraft stay in the Earth’s shadow is violated; however, in May of the same year, the ballistic life of the spacecraft will be terminated. Thus, in 2017, the question arose of how to design the correction of flight of this spacecraft using its onboard propulsion system. The correction was designed with allowance for the fact that, for the first time since it was launched, the spacecraft in the course of several years, beginning with 2017, repeatedly approaches the Moon, deeply immersing into its sphere of influence. This paper presents the technologically and organizationally convenient, allowable versions of upcoming correction of the Spektr-R spacecraft trajectory and justifies the particular scheme of its implementation.