Comparison of Radiation Pressure Perturbations on Rocket Bodies and Debris at Geosynchronous Earth Orbit

Recent research has highlighted the need for physically consistent radiation pressure and Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function BRDF models. This paper seeks to evaluate the impact of BRDF-consistent radiation pressure models compared to changes in the other BRDF parameters. The differences in orbital position arising because of changes in the shape, attitude, angular rates, BRDF parameters, and radiation pressure model are plotted as a function of time for simulated rocket bodies and debris at geosynchronous orbit GEO. The initial position and velocity of the space object is kept fixed, and the orbital position difference between a baseline orbit and the perturbed orbit are plotted as a function of time. This is similar to how the effects of perturbations have been visualized in the past in commonly used astrodynamics references.