Computational tools to construct semi-analytical planetary theories

Abstract

The main aim of this paper is the construction of a set of computational tools in order to improve the management of large expansions used in celestial mechanics. This package involves an iterative algorithm to develop the inverse of the distance according to an appropriate set of temporal variables, a new Poisson series processor, and an iterative integration method to obtain the solution of Lagrange planetary equations. The method has been applied to compute a set of examples using several kinds of anomalies in order to test the performance of the algorithms.

Keywords:

• Celestial mechanics
• Planetary theory
• Computational algebra
• Orbital mechanics
• Perturbation theory

Acknowledgements

This research was partially supported by Grant GV05/004 from the Generalitat Valenciana and Grant P1-1B2003-12 from Bancaja.