Modernization of the R0 integrator for calculating asteroid ephemerides: accounting for relativistic and non-gravitational effects

Abstract

Currently, there are many tools for calculating the trajectories of asteroids, comets, and meteor particles in the Solar System. However, only a portion of them are available to the astronomical community. Many of them do not always meet the requirements for accuracy and calculation speed. Since there is no universal solution here, the development of new methods that combine speed and accuracy following specific problems of celestial mechanics does not lose its importance. There is an attempt to combine the advantages of two trajectory calculation methods in this work. The first of them was developed at Saint Petersburg State University to quickly calculate the trajectories of a large number of particles and was implemented as a program R0. A significant disadvantage of this R0 realization is relatively low accuracy. The second one is designed to calculate the trajectory with maximum accuracy and is implemented in the form of the ASSIST software package. However, it provides lower performance. One of the reasons is the usage of complex motion equations. Some simplified models are compared with data obtained using NASA services. An assessment of the applicability of the upgraded R0 program is given. However, only part of them are available to the astronomical community. Many of them do not always meet the requirements for accuracy and calculation speed. Since there is no universal solution here, the development of new methods that combine speed and accuracy following specific problems of celestial mechanics does not lose its importance. There is an attempt to combine the advantages of two trajectory calculation methods in this work. The first of them was developed at Saint Petersburg State University to quickly calculate the trajectories of a large number of particles and was implemented as a program R0. A significant disadvantage of this R0 realization is relatively low accuracy. The second one is designed to calculate the trajectory with maximum accuracy and is implemented in the form of the ASSIST software package. However, it provides lower performance. One of the reasons is the usage of complex motion equations. Some simplified models are compared with data obtained using NASA services. An assessment of the applicability of the upgraded R0 program is given.