EVOLUTION OF ANGULAR VELOCITY FOR SPACE DEBRIS AS A RESULT OF YORP

The Yarkovsky-O'Keefe-Raszvieskii-Paddack (YORP) effect has been well studied for asteroids. This paper analyzes the effects of YORP on the angular velocity of objects in Earth orbit. A semi-analytic solution to find the averaged Fourier coefficients defining the total moment on a body as a result of YORP is derived. This solution is used to explore the rate of change of a space debris like body's angular velocity. Solutions of the analytical theory are compared with numerical integrations. The implications of this effect for defunct satellites are discussed.