Mars climate engineering using space solar reflectors in Sun-synchronous polar orbits

Abstract

Several space-based climate engineering methods, including shading the Earth with a particle ring for active cooling, or the use of orbital reflectors to increase the total insolation of Mars for climate warming have been proposed to modify planetary climates in a controller manner. In this study, solar reflectors on Sun-synchronous polar orbits (frozen orbits) normal to the ecliptic plane to the Mars are considered to intervene in the Mars’s climate system.The two-body problem is considered, and the Gauss’ form of the variational equations is used to describe the propagation of the polar orbit, taking into account the effects of solar radiation pressure and Mars’s J2 oblateness perturbation.