Uploaded August 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
The Gravitational Signature of Asteroid Populations on LISA Orbits
David Bronicki,Brett Bolen,Shane Larson
We have modeled the effect of the asteroid belt on the LISA spacecrafts. To do so, we obtained orbital and other parameters of 700,000 belt asteroids from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Small-Body Database. Since many of the masses are unknown, we used measured values of albedo, absolute magnitude, and asteroid type to estimate the individual masses via a Monte Carlo method. The asteroids’ and LISA spacecrafts’ orbits are then simulated, and the force of the asteroids on each spacecraft is calculated. We can then generate several different scenarios by repeating the mass generation. This allows for creating a statistical distribution of the effects of the asteroid belt on the LISA spacecrafts. We expect to obtain a long-term secular influence on the LISA spacecrafts. In addition, we can probe the effects of different initial LISA configurations as well as what influence close-approach asteroids may have on the LISA constellation. The mass simulation method we devised is based on observational data for the asteroid belt, and can be used for other astrophysical studies of the belt's gravitational interactions with the solar system, such as time dependent shifts of the solar system barycenter, and resonant gravitational interactions within the belt.
The Gravitational Signature of Asteroid Populations on LISA Orbits
David Bronicki,Brett Bolen,Shane Larson
We have modeled the effect of the asteroid belt on the LISA spacecrafts. To do so, we obtained orbital and other parameters of 700,000 belt asteroids from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Small-Body Database. Since many of the masses are unknown, we used measured values of albedo, absolute magnitude, and asteroid type to estimate the individual masses via a Monte Carlo method. The asteroids’ and LISA spacecrafts’ orbits are then simulated, and the force of the asteroids on each spacecraft is calculated. We can then generate several different scenarios by repeating the mass generation. This allows for creating a statistical distribution of the effects of the asteroid belt on the LISA spacecrafts. We expect to obtain a long-term secular influence on the LISA spacecrafts. In addition, we can probe the effects of different initial LISA configurations as well as what influence close-approach asteroids may have on the LISA constellation. The mass simulation method we devised is based on observational data for the asteroid belt, and can be used for other astrophysical studies of the belt's gravitational interactions with the solar system, such as time dependent shifts of the solar system barycenter, and resonant gravitational interactions within the belt.
