Welcome to the new version of CaltechAUTHORS. Login is currently restricted to library staff. If you notice any issues, please email coda@library.caltech.edu
Published July 1, 2002 | public
Journal Article Open

Statistical Theory of Asteroid Escape Rates

Abstract

Transition states in phase space are identified and shown to regulate the rate of escape of asteroids temporarily captured in circumplanetary orbits. The transition states, similar to those occurring in chemical reaction dynamics, are then used to develop a statistical semianalytical theory for the rate of escape of asteroids temporarily captured by Mars. Theory and numerical simulations are found to agree to better than 1%. These calculations suggest that further development of transition state theory in celestial mechanics, as an alternative to large-scale numerical simulations, will be a fruitful approach to mass transport calculations.

Additional Information

©2002 The American Physical Society Received 1 February 2002; published 12 June 2002 This work was partly supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, by the American Chemical Society (PRF), by the West Virginia–NASA Space Grant Program, and by NASA-ASEE (C.J.) This work was carried out in part at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Files

JAFprl02.pdf
Files (165.4 kB)
Name Size Download all
md5:63d0ea71498495239a32ae8344b1ffaa
165.4 kB Preview Download

Additional details

Created:
August 21, 2023
Modified:
October 16, 2023