Is The Orbit of An Earth's Satellite Stable?

A satellite moving around the Earth is perturbed by the gravitational force of the Moon. So its orbit may not be stable. In this work, the author uses numerical method to calculate the motion of the satellite. It is assumed that the satellite is so small that it does not influence the Earth and the Moon, but itself is influenced by the Earth and the Moon. It is found that the stability of the orbit of the satellite changes as a function of the satellite's distance to the Earth (or to the Moon). In three ranges of distance (which correspond to 2/1 resonance, 3/1 resonance, and 4/1 resonance respectively), the satellite's orbit is unstable, and the satellite eventually flies away from the Earth-Moon system. In other ranges of distance, the satellite's orbit is stable, but the semi-major axis of the orbit oscillates, and the orientation of the semi-major axis also changes through time.

Autorentext

I was born in Beijing, China. I had worked as a journalist in China for some years. I came to the U.S. to pursue graduate studies in 1996. At first I studied anthropology and got a Master's degree. Later I began to study physics. I received a Ph.D. degree in physics at the University of Missouri in 2012. I will do research in physics in the future.