In this paper, the global mapping of an irregular asteroid is studied referring to the ground track properties of a frozen orbit (at constant eccentricity and argument of pericentre on average). In fact, when the size of the asteroid is in the order of hundreds of kilometres or more, an appropriate design of the ground track becomes an important element to optimise the coverage and guarantee regular cycles of observation.
The purpose of this study is to identify orbits with quasi-constant orbital elements around a slowly rotating asteroid. To this end, a recurrence approach has been developed to formulate the high-order averaged disturbing potential. The order of the model can be determined based on the irregularity of the asteroid and the required accuracy. The proposed approach presents significant advantages in studying long-term behaviors around asteroids where the second degree and order gravity model fails or does not work well.
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