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Abstract: This paper summarizes and provides a critical analysis of the historical developments of lunar gravitational models from the earliest use of ground based tracking systems of the Lunar Orbiter to the Lunar Prospector mission. This encompasses a comprehensive and critical analysis of the various methods used in the estimation of the gravity coefficients and the processing of large batches of diverse measurements and data types. It has been shown that weakness exists in the current models of the lunar gravity field, which is primarily due to the lack of far side lunar tracking data information, which makes the lunar potential modeling difficult but expected to be overcome as data from SELENE satellite-to-satellite tracking becomes available. Comparisons of various lunar models reveal an agreement in the low order coefficients of the spherical harmonics. However, substantial differences in the models exist in the higher-order harmonics. A numerical comparison has been presented showing the performance of all the contemporary lunar gravitational models used within the astrodynamics community and available in public domain. Improvements to the current models are part of a continuing process and the recent model improvements and future possibilities in lunar gravity modeling are discussed. A brief review of the recent missions has been presented. It is hoped that this critical review will benefit the researchers by presenting the historical as well as state of the art in this field. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The inclination of remote-sensing satellites, which are generally placed in sun-synchronous orbits, varies as a function of the nominal equatorial crossing local mean solar time selected for a given mission. The Indian Remote-Sensing satellites will have an inclination reduction of about 0.034° per year and for most of the satellites, the local time chosen was around 10:30 hours at descending node. In practice, the initial inclination is biased appropriately so that the expensive out-of-plane maneuvers could be taken up after few years of mission operations, depending on the deviations permitted in the local time for a given mission. However, the scenario differs when the mission objectives require an almost exact repeat orbit of 14 or 15 per day. In such a situation, the satellite orbit, which passes through a 14th or 15th order resonance, undergoes a nearly secular increase in orbit inclination.This paper presents a detailed analysis carried out for such an orbit, based on Cowell''s approach. Long-term predictions have been carried out by considering all major forces that perturbs the satellite orbit. Observed behavior of orbit, based on the daily definitive orbit determination is also presented. The variation in inclination and the cause is clearly brought out. Further, it is demonstrated that the selection of longitude for nominal ground track pattern has an impact on the inclination variation. A proposal is made to take advantage of such expected inclination variation so that initial inclination bias can be chosen appropriately. Ground track longitude can be chosen to take advantage, subject to the mission coverage requirements.The paper contains the results of an exhaustive analysis of the actually observed orbit resonance. It is felt that the work has both theoretical and operational importance for remote-sensing missions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: India’s first Moon mission Chandrayaan-1 carrying eleven scientific instruments for the purpose of expanding scientific knowledge about the Moon was launched on 22 October 2008. The spacecraft was put into Moon’s polar, circular orbit of about (100×100)km on 12 November 2008 by carrying out a sequence of Earth bound and Lunar bound maneuvers. Precise orbit determinations are carried out during each phase of the mission using tracking data collected from network of tracking stations configured for the mission. The determined orbital solutions are used for spacecraft navigation, mission planning and science data processing. ISRO’s operational orbit determination program (ODP) used for low earth missions was suitably updated and validated before the launch of Chandrayaan-1. The purpose of this paper is to describe the methodology and the performance of Chandrayaan-1 orbit determination system during initial phase of the mission along with achieved orbit determination accuracy in the early normal phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]