Note on the ideal frame formulation

Abstract

An implementation of the ideal frame formulation of perturbed Keplerian motion is presented which only requires the integration of a differential system of dimension 7, contrary to the 8 variables traditionally integrated with this approach. The new formulation is based on the integration of a scaled version of the Eulerian set of redundant parameters, and slightly improves runtime performance with respect to the 8 dimensional case while retaining comparable accuracy.