Introduction and Background

Abstract

When studying motion in the vicinity of small bodies one must be cautious regarding what assumptions can be made, due to the variety and diversity of shapes, sizes and morphologies that these bodies present. One reliable assumption is that the total mass of these bodies is tiny as compared to planetary bodies, but huge as compared to visiting spacecraft. For an extreme example, even a boulder of size 1 meter with a density of 3.5 grams per cubic centimeter will still be an order of magnitude more massive than a typical interplanetary spacecraft, with the mass of the “asteroid” increasing by an order of magnitude with every doubling of the body’s size. Thus, just as one can neglect the effect of small bodies on the planets and sun that they live near, in turn one can neglect the effect of a spacecraft when it orbits about these small bodies.