@inproceedings{PeloniDachwaldCeriotti2017,
  author    = {Peloni, Alessandro and Dachwald, Bernd and Ceriotti, Matteo},
  title     = {Multiple NEA rendezvous mission: Solar sailing options},
  series = {Fourth International Symposium on Solar Sailing},
  booktitle = {Fourth International Symposium on Solar Sailing},
  pages     = {1 -- 11},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {The scientific interest in near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) and the classification of some of those as potentially hazardous asteroid for the Earth stipulated the interest in NEA exploration. Close-up observations of these objects will increase drastically our knowledge about the overall NEA population. For this reason, a multiple NEA rendezvous mission through solar sailing is investigated, taking advantage of the propellantless nature of this groundbreaking propulsion technology. Considering a spacecraft based on the DLR/ESA Gossamer technology, this work focuses on the search of possible sequences of NEA encounters. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated through a number of fully-optimized trajectories. The results show that it is possible to visit five NEAs within 10 years with near-term solar-sail technology. Moreover, a study on a reduced NEA database demonstrates the reliability of the approach used, showing that 58\% of the sequences found with an approximated trajectory model can be converted into real solar-sail trajectories. Lastly, this second study shows the effectiveness of the proposed automatic optimization algorithm, which is able to find solutions for a large number of mission scenarios without any input required from the user.},
  language  = {en}
}