@inproceedings{GrundmannBorellaCeriottietal.2021, author = {Grundmann, Jan Thimo and Borella, Laura and Ceriotti, Matteo and Chand, Suditi and Cordero, Federico and Dachwald, Bernd and Fexer, Sebastian and Grimm, Christian D. and Hendrikse, Jeffrey and Herč{\´i}k, David and Herique, Alain and Hillebrandt, Martin and Ho, Tra-Mi and Kesseler, Lars and Laabs, Martin and Lange, Caroline and Lange, Michael and Lichtenheldt, Roy and McInnes, Colin R. and Moore, Iain and Peloni, Alessandro and Plettenmeier, Dirk and Quantius, Dominik and Seefeldt, Patric and Venditti, Flaviane c. F. and Vergaaij, Merel and Viavattene, Giulia and Virkki, Anne K. and Zander, Martin}, title = {More bucks for the bang: new space solutions, impact tourism and one unique science \& engineering opportunity at T-6 months and counting}, series = {7th IAA Planetary Defense Conference}, booktitle = {7th IAA Planetary Defense Conference}, year = {2021}, abstract = {For now, the Planetary Defense Conference Exercise 2021's incoming fictitious(!), asteroid, 2021 PDC, seems headed for impact on October 20th, 2021, exactly 6 months after its discovery. Today (April 26th, 2021), the impact probability is 5\%, in a steep rise from 1 in 2500 upon discovery six days ago. We all know how these things end. Or do we? Unless somebody kicked off another headline-grabbing media scare or wants to keep civil defense very idle very soon, chances are that it will hit (note: this is an exercise!). Taking stock, it is barely 6 months to impact, a steadily rising likelihood that it will actually happen, and a huge uncertainty of possible impact energies: First estimates range from 1.2 MtTNT to 13 GtTNT, and this is not even the worst-worst case: a 700 m diameter massive NiFe asteroid (covered by a thin veneer of Ryugu-black rubble to match size and brightness), would come in at 70 GtTNT. In down to Earth terms, this could be all between smashing fireworks over some remote area of the globe and a 7.5 km crater downtown somewhere. Considering the deliberate and sedate ways of development of interplanetary missions it seems we can only stand and stare until we know well enough where to tell people to pack up all that can be moved at all and save themselves. But then, it could just as well be a smaller bright rock. The best estimate is 120 m diameter from optical observation alone, by 13\% standard albedo. NASA's upcoming DART mission to binary asteroid (65803) Didymos is designed to hit such a small target, its moonlet Dimorphos. The Deep Impact mission's impactor in 2005 successfully guided itself to the brightest spot on comet 9P/Tempel 1, a relatively small feature on the 6 km nucleus. And 'space' has changed: By the end of this decade, one satellite communication network plans to have launched over 11000 satellites at a pace of 60 per launch every other week. This level of series production is comparable in numbers to the most prolific commercial airliners. Launch vehicle production has not simply increased correspondingly - they can be reused, although in a trade for performance. Optical and radio astronomy as well as planetary radar have made great strides in the past decade, and so has the design and production capability for everyday 'high-tech' products. 60 years ago, spaceflight was invented from scratch within two years, and there are recent examples of fast-paced space projects as well as a drive towards 'responsive space'. It seems it is not quite yet time to abandon all hope. We present what could be done and what is too close to call once thinking is shoved out of the box by a clear and present danger, to show where a little more preparedness or routine would come in handy - or become decisive. And if we fail, let's stand and stare safely and well instrumented anywhere on Earth together in the greatest adventure of science.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{JeanPierrePBaqueBillietal.2018, author = {Jean-Pierre P., de Vera and Baque, Mickael and Billi, Daniela and B{\"o}ttger, Ute and Bulat, Sergey and Czupalla, Markus and Dachwald, Bernd and de la Torre, Rosa and Elsaesser, Andreas and Foucher, Fr{\´e}d{\´e}ric and Korsitzky, Hartmut and Kozyrovska, Natalia and L{\"a}ufer, Andreas and Moeller, Ralf and Olsson-Francis, Karen and Onofri, Silvano and Sommer, Stefan and Wagner, Dirk and Westall, Frances}, title = {The search for life on Mars and in the Solar System - strategies, logistics and infrastructures}, series = {69th International Astronautical Congress (IAC)}, booktitle = {69th International Astronautical Congress (IAC)}, pages = {1 -- 8}, year = {2018}, abstract = {The question "Are we alone in the Universe?" is perhaps the most fundamental one that affects mankind. How can we address the search for life in our Solar System? Mars, Enceladus and Europa are the focus of the search for life outside the terrestrial biosphere. While it is more likely to find remnants of life (fossils of extinct life) on Mars because of its past short time window of the surface habitability, it is probably more likely to find traces of extant life on the icy moons and ocean worlds of Jupiter and Saturn. Nevertheless, even on Mars there could still be a chance to find extant life in niches near to the surface or in just discovered subglacial lakes beneath the South Pole ice cap. Here, the different approaches for the detection of traces of life in the form of biosignatures including pre-biotic molecules will be presented. We will outline the required infrastructure for this enterprise and give examples of future mission concepts to investigate the presence of life on other planets and moons. Finally, we will provide suggestions on methods, techniques, operations and strategies for preparation and realization of future life detection missions.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{GrundmannBauerBieleetal.2018, author = {Grundmann, Jan Thimo and Bauer, Waldemar and Biele, Jens and Boden, Ralf and Ceriotti, Matteo and Cordero, Federico and Dachwald, Bernd and Dumont, Etienne and Grimm, Christian and Herč{\´i}k, David and Herique, Alain and Ho, Tra-Mi and Jahnke, Rico and Koch, Aaron and Kofman, Wlodek and Koncz, Alexander and Krause, Christian and Lange, Caroline and Lichtenheldt, Roy and Maiwald, Volker and Mikschl, Tobias and Mikulz, Eugen and Montenegro, Sergio and Pelivan, Ivanka and Peloni, Alessandro and Plettemeier, Dirk and Quantius, Dominik and Reershemius, Siebo and Renger, Thomas and Riemann, Johannes and Ruffer, Michael and Sasaki, Kaname and Schmitz, Nicole and Seboldt, Wolfgang and Seefeldt, Patric and Spietz, Peter and Spr{\"o}witz, Tom and Sznajder, Maciej and Tardivel, Simon and Toth, Norbert and Wejmo, Elisabet and Wolff, Friederike and Ziach, Christian}, title = {Efficient massively parallel prospection for ISRU by multiple near-earth asteroid rendezvous using near-term solar sails and'now-term'small spacecraft solutions}, series = {2nd Asteroid Science Intersections with In-Space Mine Engineering - ASIME 2018}, booktitle = {2nd Asteroid Science Intersections with In-Space Mine Engineering - ASIME 2018}, pages = {1 -- 33}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Physical interaction with small solar system bodies (SSSB) is key for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). The design of mining missions requires good understanding of SSSB properties, including composition, surface and interior structure, and thermal environment. But as the saying goes "If you've seen one asteroid, you've seen one Asteroid": Although some patterns may begin to appear, a stable and reliable scheme of SSSB classification still has to be evolved. Identified commonalities would enable generic ISRU technology and spacecraft design approaches with a high degree of re-use. Strategic approaches require much broader in-depth characterization of the SSSB populations of interest to the ISRU community. The DLR-ESTEC GOSSAMER Roadmap Science Working Groups identified target-flexible Multiple Near-Earth asteroid (NEA) Rendezvous (MNR) as one of the missions only feasible with solar sail propulsion, showed the ability to access any inclination and a wide range of heliocentric distances as well as continuous operation close to Earth's orbit where low delta-v objects reside.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{CarzanaDachwaldNoomen2017, author = {Carzana, Livio and Dachwald, Bernd and Noomen, Ron}, title = {Model and trajectory optimization for an ideal laser-enhanced solar sail}, series = {68th International Astronautical Congress}, booktitle = {68th International Astronautical Congress}, year = {2017}, abstract = {A laser-enhanced solar sail is a solar sail that is not solely propelled by solar radiation but additionally by a laser beam that illuminates the sail. This way, the propulsive acceleration of the sail results from the combined action of the solar and the laser radiation pressure onto the sail. The potential source of the laser beam is a laser satellite that coverts solar power (in the inner solar system) or nuclear power (in the outer solar system) into laser power. Such a laser satellite (or many of them) can orbit anywhere in the solar system and its optimal orbit (or their optimal orbits) for a given mission is a subject for future research. This contribution provides the model for an ideal laser-enhanced solar sail and investigates how a laser can enhance the thrusting capability of such a sail. The term "ideal" means that the solar sail is assumed to be perfectly reflecting and that the laser beam is assumed to have a constant areal power density over the whole sail area. Since a laser beam has a limited divergence, it can provide radiation pressure at much larger solar distances and increase the radiation pressure force into the desired direction. Therefore, laser-enhanced solar sails may make missions feasible, that would otherwise have prohibitively long flight times, e.g. rendezvous missions in the outer solar system. This contribution will also analyze exemplary mission scenarios and present optimial trajectories without laying too much emphasis on the design and operations of the laser satellites. If the mission studies conclude that laser-enhanced solar sails would have advantages with respect to "traditional" solar sails, a detailed study of the laser satellites and the whole system architecture would be the second next step}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{Dachwald2007, author = {Dachwald, Bernd}, title = {Low-Thrust Mission Analysis and Global Trajectory Optimization Using Evolutionary Neurocontrol: New Results}, series = {European Workshop on Space Mission Analysis ESA/ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany 10 { 12 Dec 2007}, booktitle = {European Workshop on Space Mission Analysis ESA/ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany 10 { 12 Dec 2007}, year = {2007}, abstract = {Interplanetary trajectories for low-thrust spacecraft are often characterized by multiple revolutions around the sun. Unfortunately, the convergence of traditional trajectory optimizers that are based on numerical optimal control methods depends strongly on an adequate initial guess for the control function (if a direct method is used) or for the starting values of the adjoint vector (if an indirect method is used). Especially when many revolutions around the sun are re- quired, trajectory optimization becomes a very difficult and time-consuming task that involves a lot of experience and expert knowledge in astrodynamics and optimal control theory, because an adequate initial guess is extremely hard to find. Evolutionary neurocontrol (ENC) was proposed as a smart method for low-thrust trajectory optimization that fuses artificial neural networks and evolutionary algorithms to so-called evolutionary neurocontrollers (ENCs) [1]. Inspired by natural archetypes, ENC attacks the trajectoryoptimization problem from the perspective of artificial intelligence and machine learning, a perspective that is quite different from that of optimal control theory. Within the context of ENC, a trajectory is regarded as the result of a spacecraft steering strategy that maps permanently the actual spacecraft state and the actual target state onto the actual spacecraft control vector. This way, the problem of searching the optimal spacecraft trajectory is equivalent to the problem of searching (or "learning") the optimal spacecraft steering strategy. An artificial neural network is used to implement such a spacecraft steering strategy. It can be regarded as a parameterized function (the network function) that is defined by the internal network parameters. Therefore, each distinct set of network parameters defines a different network function and thus a different steering strategy. The problem of searching the optimal steering strategy is now equivalent to the problem of searching the optimal set of network parameters. Evolutionary algorithms that work on a population of (artificial) chromosomes are used to find the optimal network parameters, because the parameters can be easily mapped onto a chromosome. The trajectory optimization problem is solved when the optimal chromosome is found. A comparison of solar sail trajectories that have been published by others [2, 3, 4, 5] with ENC-trajectories has shown that ENCs can be successfully applied for near-globally optimal spacecraft control [1, 6] and that they are able to find trajectories that are closer to the (unknown) global optimum, because they explore the trajectory search space more exhaustively than a human expert can do. The obtained trajectories are fairly accurate with respect to the terminal constraint. If a more accurate trajectory is required, the ENC-solution can be used as an initial guess for a local trajectory optimization method. Using ENC, low-thrust trajectories can be optimized without an initial guess and without expert attendance. Here, new results for nuclear electric spacecraft and for solar sail spacecraft are presented and it will be shown that ENCs find very good trajectories even for very difficult problems. Trajectory optimization results are presented for 1. NASA's Solar Polar Imager Mission, a mission to attain a highly inclined close solar orbit with a solar sail [7] 2. a mission to de ect asteroid Apophis with a solar sail from a retrograde orbit with a very-high velocity impact [8, 9] 3. JPL's \2nd Global Trajectory Optimization Competition", a grand tour to visit four asteroids from different classes with a NEP spacecraft}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{DachwaldXuFeldmannetal.2011, author = {Dachwald, Bernd and Xu, Changsheng and Feldmann, Marco and Plescher, Engelbert}, title = {IceMole : Development of a novel subsurface ice probe and testing of the first prototype on the Morteratsch Glacier}, series = {EGU General Assembly 2011 Vienna | Austria | 03 - 08 April 2011}, booktitle = {EGU General Assembly 2011 Vienna | Austria | 03 - 08 April 2011}, year = {2011}, abstract = {We present the novel concept of a combined drilling and melting probe for subsurface ice research. This probe, named "IceMole", is currently developed, built, and tested at the FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences' Astronautical Laboratory. Here, we describe its first prototype design and report the results of its field tests on the Swiss Morteratsch glacier. Although the IceMole design is currently adapted to terrestrial glaciers and ice shields, it may later be modified for the subsurface in-situ investigation of extraterrestrial ice, e.g., on Mars, Europa, and Enceladus. If life exists on those bodies, it may be present in the ice (as life can also be found in the deep ice of Earth).}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{GrundmannBieleDachwaldetal.2016, author = {Grundmann, Jan Thimo and Biele, Jens and Dachwald, Bernd and Grimm, Christian and Lange, Caroline and Ulamec, Stephan}, title = {Small spacecraft for small solar system body science, planetary defence and applications}, series = {IEEE Aerospace Conference 2016}, booktitle = {IEEE Aerospace Conference 2016}, pages = {1 -- 20}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Following the recent successful landings and occasional re-awakenings of PHILAE, the lander carried aboard ROSETTA to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and the launch of the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout, MASCOT, aboard the HAYABUSA2 space probe to asteroid (162173) Ryugu we present an overview of the characteristics and peculiarities of small spacecraft missions to small solar system bodies (SSSB). Their main purpose is planetary science which is transitioning from a 'pure' science of observation of the distant to one also supporting in-situ applications relevant for life on Earth. Here we focus on missions at the interface of SSSB science and planetary defence applications. We provide a brief overview of small spacecraft SSSB missions and on this background present recent missions, projects and related studies at the German Aerospace Center, DLR, that contribute to the worldwide planetary defence community. These range from Earth orbit technology demonstrators to active science missions in interplanetary space. We provide a summary of experience from recently flown missions with DLR participation as well as a number of studies. These include PHILAE, the lander of ESA's ROSETTA comet rendezvous mission now on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout, MASCOT, now in cruise to the ~1 km diameter C-type near-Earth asteroid (162173) Ryugu aboard the Japanese sample-return probe HAYABUSA2. We introduce the differences between the conventional methods employed in the design, integration and testing of large spacecraft and the new approaches developed by small spacecraft projects. We expect that the practical experience that can be gained from projects on extremely compressed timelines or with high-intensity operation phases on a newly explored small solar system body can contribute significantly to the study, preparation and realization of future planetary defence related missions. One is AIDA (Asteroid Impact \& Deflection Assessment), a joint effort of ESA, JHU/APL, NASA, OCA and DLR, combining JHU/APL's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) and ESA's AIM (Asteroid Impact Monitor) spacecraft in a mission towards near-Earth binary asteroid system (65803) Didymos. DLR is currently applying MASCOT heritage and lessons learned to the design of MASCOT2, a lander for the AIM mission to support a bistatic low frequency radar experiment with PHILAE/ROSETTA CONSERT heritage to explore the inner structure of Didymoon which is the designated impact target for DART.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{GrundmannBauerBodenetal.2019, author = {Grundmann, Jan Thimo and Bauer, Waldemar and Boden, Ralf Christian and Ceriotti, Matteo and Cordero, Federico and Dachwald, Bernd and Dumont, Etienne and Grimm, Christian D. and Hercik, D. and Herique, A. and Ho, Tra-Mi and Jahnke, Rico and Kofman, Wlodek and Lange, Caroline and Lichtenheldt, Roy and McInnes, Colin R. and Mikschl, Tobias and Montenegro, Sergio and Moore, Iain and Pelivan, Ivanka and Peloni, Alessandro and Plettenmeier, Dirk and Quantius, Dominik and Reershemius, Siebo and Renger, Thomas and Riemann, Johannes and Rogez, Yves and Ruffer, Michael and Sasaki, Kaname and Schmitz, Nicole and Seboldt, Wolfgang and Seefeldt, Patric and Spietz, Peter and Spr{\"o}witz, Tom and Sznajder, Maciej and Toth, Norbert and Viavattene, Giulia and Wejmo, Elisabet and Wolff, Friederike and Ziach, Christian}, title = {Responsive exploration and asteroid characterization through integrated solar sail and lander development using small spacecraft technologies}, series = {IAA Planetary Defense Conference}, booktitle = {IAA Planetary Defense Conference}, year = {2019}, abstract = {In parallel to the evolution of the Planetary Defense Conference, the exploration of small solar system bodies has advanced from fast fly-bys on the sidelines of missions to the planets to the implementation of dedicated sample-return and in-situ analysis missions. Spacecraft of all sizes have landed, touch-and-go sampled, been gently beached, or impacted at hypervelocity on asteroid and comet surfaces. More have flown by close enough to image their surfaces in detail or sample their immediate environment, often as part of an extended or re-purposed mission. And finally, full-scale planetary defense experiment missions are in the making. Highly efficient low-thrust propulsion is increasingly applied beyond commercial use also in mainstream and flagship science missions, in combination with gravity assist propulsion. Another development in the same years is the growth of small spacecraft solutions, not in size but in numbers and individual capabilities. The on-going NASA OSIRIS-REx and JAXA HAYABUSA2 missions exemplify the trend as well as the upcoming NEA SCOUT mission or the landers MINERVA-II and MASCOT recently deployed on Ryugu. We outline likely as well as possible and efficient routes of continuation of all these developments towards a propellant-less and highly efficient class of spacecraft for small solar system body exploration: small spacecraft solar sails designed for carefree handling and equipped with carried landers and application modules, for all asteroid user communities -planetary science, planetary defence, and in-situ resource utilization. This projection builds on the experience gained in the development of deployable membrane structures leading up to the successful ground deployment test of a (20 m)² solar sail at DLR Cologne and in the 20 years since. It draws on the background of extensive trajectory optimization studies, the qualified technology of the DLR GOSSAMER-1 deployment demonstrator, and the MASCOT asteroid lander. These enable 'now-term' as well as near-term hardware solutions, and thus responsive fast-paced development. Mission types directly applicable to planetary defense include: single and Multiple NEA Rendezvous ((M)NR) for mitigation precursor, target monitoring and deflection follow-up tasks; sail-propelled head-on retrograde kinetic impactors (RKI) for mitigation; and deployable membrane based methods to modify the asteroid's properties or interact with it. The DLR-ESTEC GOSSAMER Roadmap initiated studies of missions uniquely feasible with solar sails such as Displaced L1 (DL1) space weather advance warning and monitoring and Solar Polar Orbiter (SPO) delivery which demonstrate the capability of near-term solar sails to achieve NEA rendezvous in any kind of orbit, from Earth-coorbital to extremely inclined and even retrograde orbits. For those mission types using separable payloads, such as SPO, (M)NR and RKI, design concepts can be derived from the separable Boom Sail Deployment Units characteristic of DLR GOSSAMER solar sail technology, nanolanders like MASCOT, or microlanders like the JAXA-DLR Jupiter Trojan Asteroid Lander for the OKEANOS mission which can shuttle from the sail to the asteroids visited and enable multiple NEA sample-return missions. These are an ideal match for solar sails in micro-spacecraft format whose launch configurations are compatible with ESPA and ASAP secondary payload platforms.}, language = {en} } @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} } @inproceedings{GrundmannBieleDachwaldetal.2017, author = {Grundmann, Jan Thimo and Biele, Jens and Dachwald, Bernd and Grimm, Christian D. and Lange, Caroline and Ulamec, Stephan and Ziach, Christian and Spr{\"o}witz, Tom and Ruffer, Michael and Seefeldt, Patric and Spietz, Peter and Toth, Norbert and Mimasu, Yuya and Rittweger, Andreas and Bibring, Jean-Pierre and Braukhane, Andy and Boden, Ralf Christian and Dumont, Etienne and Jahnke, Stephan Siegfried and Jetzschmann, Michael and Kr{\"u}ger, Hans and Lange, Michael and Gomez, Antonio Martelo and Massonett, Didier and Okada, Tatsuaki and Sagliano, Marco and Sasaki, Kaname and Schr{\"o}der, Silvio and Sippel, Martin and Skoczylas, Thomas and Wejmo, Elisabet}, title = {Small landers and separable sub-spacecraft for near-term solar sails}, series = {The Fourth International Symposium on Solar Sailing 2017}, booktitle = {The Fourth International Symposium on Solar Sailing 2017}, pages = {1 -- 10}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Following the successful PHILAE landing with ESA's ROSETTA probe and the launch of the MINERVA rovers and the Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout, MASCOT, aboard the JAXA space probe, HAYABUSA2, to asteroid (162173) Ryugu, small landers have found increasing interest. Integrated at the instrument level in their mothership they support small solar system body studies. With efficient capabilities, resource-friendly design and inherent robustness they are an attractive exploration mission element. We discuss advantages and constraints of small sub-spacecraft, focusing on emerging areas of activity such as asteroid diversity studies, planetary defence, and asteroid mining, on the background of our projects PHILAE, MASCOT, MASCOT2, the JAXA-DLR Solar Power Sail Lander Design Study, and others. The GOSSAMER-1 solar sail deployment concept also involves independent separable sub-spacecraft operating synchronized to deploy the sail. Small spacecraft require big changes in the way we do things and occasionally a little more effort than would be anticipated based on a traditional large spacecraft approach. In a Constraints-Driven Engineering environment we apply Concurrent Design and Engineering (CD/CE), Concurrent Assembly, Integration and Verification (CAIV) and Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE). Near-term solar sails will likely be small spacecraft which we expect to harmonize well with nano-scale separable instrument payload packages.}, language = {en} }