Celletti, Alessandra

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Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy (2020) 132:18https://doi.org/10.1007/s10569-020-09957-5PREFACETopical collection “50 years of Celestial Mechanicsand Dynamical Astronomy”Alessandra Celletti1Published online: 31 March 2020© Springer Nature B.V. 2020The topical collection “50 years of CelestialMechanics andDynamical Astronomy” has beenproposed to celebrate the anniversary of the publication of its first issue in March 1969.The first edition of the journal was published under the title “Celestial Mechanics” as aninitiative of the CelestialMechanics Institute. Later in 1989, the journal changed its name into“Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy” (CM&DA). Over the years the editors-in-chief, associate editors and authors made a big effort to keep the journal up-to-date andretain a high scientific standard.As written in 1990 by J.M.A. Danby ([CMDA 1990, vol. 50, 5–6]), the birth of the journal“Celestial Mechanics” dates back to a meeting at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Theeditorial of the first issue, while defining Celestial Mechanics as an old science that infersor proves “physical facts from the study of orbital behavior and other phenomena exhibitedby celestial and artificial bodies,” underlined the need for research in this field, also due tothe number of questions raised by the international space programs. A requirement raisedat that time, and still valid nowadays, was to satisfy “accuracy, computational adaptabilityand speed.” Indeed, over the last decades space missions and scientific discoveries havecontributed to give answers, but also to raise new questions, thus making Celestial Mechanicsan evergreen field of research. Among the relatively recent findings, wewould like tomentionthe discovery of the Kuiper belt at the edge of the Solar system, the detection of extra-Solarplanetary systems, the visionary concept of interplanetary highways that gave rise to a newbranch of Astrodynamics, now known as “Space Manifold Dynamics.”The first issue of CM&DA dealt with topics that are still fully up-to-date; a partial listcontains the critical inclination problem, perturbation theories, rotational dynamics, artificialsatellite motions, orbit determination. Nowadays, these are among the most timely topicson which many researchers concentrate. It might therefore seem surprising that such topicsappeared already in the journal in March 1969.This fact highlights that Celestial Mechanics is often characterized by two main aspects:on one side, many topics are timeless despite the technological advancements, and on theother hand, some problems exhibit an intrinsic difficulty which covers centuries of researchThis article is part of the topical collection on 50 years of Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy.Guest Editors: Editorial Committee.B Alessandra Celletticelletti@mat.uniroma2.it1 Rome, Italy12318 Page 2 of 3 A. Cellettistudies (like the celebrated 3-body problem). Indeed, Celestial Mechanics as well as Dynam-ical Astronomy are based on a complex recipe that mixes together three main ingredients: theconstruction of models that accurately describe space problems, the development of math-ematical theories to study (complex) models, a wide range of applications to natural andartificial objects of the Solar system.Over the last 50 years, the journalCM&DAhas become a reference point for all researchersworking in the field. The articles of CM&DA have covered a wide range of topics thatdefinitely satisfy all scientific tastes: from the motion of artificial objects to that of naturalbodies, from numerical simulations to advanced mathematical theories. It is important tostress that Celestial Mechanics brings novelties in several directions; it might contribute tocreate a new model, develop an innovative theory, make a forefront application or rathercreate a new paradigm that, mixing all three ingredients, leads to original, possibly visionary,ways to study the motion of the celestial bodies.In this scientific and cultural context, it is worth recalling the words that ended the editorialof the first issue in March 1969 (we just update of the name of the journal): “if each of us willcontribute a little, not only to CelestialMechanics (the field) but also to ‘CelestialMechanics’(the journal), each will benefit and realize some degree of personal satisfaction in knowingthat we have helped through our contributions.”The topical collection “50 years of Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy” con-tains 19 articles which cover different subjects. We shortly summarize here their content.The article by Scheeres (vol. 132, article n. 4) concerns the analysis of the energy requiredfor collections of finite-density bodies to undergo escape under internal gravitational inter-actions alone; the results provide also information for the disruption of rubble-pile asteroidswhen only considering gravitational interaction effects. The article by Pfenniger (vol. 131,article n. 58) derives four expressions, depending on sums of position and velocity coordi-nates, which bound the total angular momentum of particle systems or, by extension, of anycontinuous or discontinuous material systems.Central configurations have been considered in the articles by Hampton (vol. 131, articlen. 20) and by Corbera et al. (vol. 131, article n. 34); in the former paper, the author computesbounds on the eigenvalues for the regular polygon with equal masses and gives estimates onwhere bifurcations occur, while in the latter paper, the authors classify the full set of convexcentral configurations in the Newtonian planar four-body problem.Mean-motion resonances are dealt by Sansottera and Libert (vol. 131, article n. 38) andLhotka and Gales (vol. 131, article n. 49). In the first paper, the Lagrange–Laplace secularapproximation for coplanar systems has been studied to analyze the dynamics of resonantextra-Solar systems; in the second paper, the authors investigate the dynamics of chargeddust close to outer mean-motion resonances with Jupiter.The Lambert problem is the subject of the articles by Albouy (vol. 131, article n. 40)and Russell (vol. 131, article n. 50). The paper by Albouy gives two new proofs of Lamberttheorem on the elapsed time along a Keplerian arc, using Hamilton’s variational proof andusing Lambert’s geometrical proof. The paper by Russell considers several aspects of themultiple-revolution Lambert problem (e.g., parameter and solution space, problem domain,interpolation of the Lambert iteration variable).Satellite theories have been investigated in the article by Mahajan and Alfriend (vol. 131,article n. 45), where the authors give the mathematical development of a first-order orbittheory, which includes a complete gravitational potential with all zonal, sectorial and tesseralharmonics considered as the dominant perturbations. The article by Lara (vol. 131, article n.42) considers themain problem of artificial satellite theory and develops a new radial, natural,higher-order intermediary using a suitable Lie transforms simplification. Perturbations due to123Topical collection “50 years of Celestial Mechanics and… Page 3 of 3 18planetary oblateness, together with Solar radiation pressure, have been considered by Alessiet al. (vol. 131, article n. 43) with the aim to characterize the equilibrium points and the phasespace associated with the singly averaged dynamics. The comparison of semi-analytical andnon-averaged propagation methods for Earth’s satellite orbits is performed in the article byAmato et al. (vol. 131, article n. 21) as an alternative to semi-analytical orbit propagationmethods.Going farther from the Earth, the articles by Jorba and Jorba-Cuscó (vol. 132, article n.11) and by Pucacco (vol. 131, article n. 44) deal with the collinear libration points. In thefirst article, the authors study the bicircular problem and, using a periodic time-dependentreduction to the center manifold, they show the existence of two families of (planar andvertical) quasi-periodic Lyapunov orbits. The paper by Pucacco provides a global analysis ofthe center manifold of the collinear points within the circular restricted three-body problem;bifurcation sequences of the main orbit families are studied using a geometric theory basedon the reduction of the symmetries of the normal form.The article by Miguel and Colombo (vol. 131, article n. 59) concerns the coupled attitudeand orbit dynamics of Solar sails, where the sail is assumed to be a simplified quasi-rhombicpyramid that provides the structure helio-stability properties. An approximate analyticalsolution for the two-body problem perturbed by a radial, low thrust is obtained in the articlebyGonzalo andBombardelli (vol. 131, article n. 37),where they use a regularized formulationof the orbital motion and the method of multiple scales.The B-plane formulation is the subject of the article by Farnocchia et al. (vol. 131, articlen. 36): this tool is fundamental to study planetary encounters of small bodies and spacecraftflybys; under linearity assumptions, the authors showhow toderive close approachboundariesand impact probabilities from the orbital uncertainty mapped onto the B-plane.The article by Boué and Efroimsky (vol. 131, article n. 30) formulates the expressions forthe rates of the Keplerian orbital elements within a two-body problem perturbed by the tidesin both partners, providing a complete derivation, from scratch, of these rates.The article “Are the analytical proper elements of asteroids still needed?” by KnezevichandMilani (vol. 131, article n. 27) deserves special mention. Our friend and colleagueAndreaMilani passed away inNovember 2018; thismakes this article and thewhole topical collectionextremely valuable. Their results set up the question mark appearing in the title and clearlyconfirm the superior quality of synthetic values; the authors also present a new syntheticmethod to determine the locations of secular resonances.We would like to thank all authors for their contributions. We also recognize the membersof the editorial board for their continuous work to promote the journal.A special thanks to the members of the committee that selected the articles included inthis topical collection: C. Beaugè, B. Erdi, T. Fukushima, G. Gomez, P. Gurfil, A. Lemaitre,V. Sidorenko. We are also grateful to Frank Schulz for his accurate and continuous editorialassistance.We hope that our readers will enjoy reading the articles of the topical collection “50 yearsof CelestialMechanics andDynamical Astronomy,” whichwitness the past and present statusof the researchers working in Celestial Mechanics and Astrodynamics: a lively, cohesive andgrowing community.Publisher’s Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps andinstitutional affiliations.123

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