Solar radiation pressure (SRP) can influence the orbital parameters of a satellite, affecting its trajectory and orbital stability. In this study, we analyze the effects of SRP on a real geostationary communication satellite using both spherical and flat models. We use three different articulation schemes: fixed solar panels (model 0), solar panels rotating about a single axis to track the Sun (model 1), and solar panels rotating about two axes for perfect Sun tracking (model 2). Among the three articulation models, model 2 showed the best overall performance with the smallest variations in SRP area (3.56%), SRP-induced force (6.44%), and torque (16.15%) due to better Sun alignment. Model 0 (fixed panels) exhibited the largest variations in SRP area (14.53%) and SRP-induced force (9.69%) but maintained stable orbital energy (0.0029%) and acceleration (0.02%). Model 1 (single-axis tracking) offered moderate improvement but had the highest torque variation (56.87%), which may affect long-term stability. Our modeling indicates that the orbital parameters of the spherical and flat models are generally similar, with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.9 or better. Additionally, we calculated the differences between the two models for each orbital parameter over the 10 years. The maximum differences observed are 0.022 km for the semi-major axis, 0.000017° for inclination, 0.000045 for eccentricity, 358.34° for the argument of perigee, 0.000018° for the right ascension of the ascending node, and 357.66° for the mean anomaly. We also assessed the agreement between the models and real data, showing that almost all orbital parameters for both models exhibit similar patterns to those of the real data.
Pratiwi et al. (Fri,) studied this question.