Solar-sail trajectory design for a multiple near-earth-asteroid rendezvous mission
- The scientific interest for near-Earth asteroids as well as the interest in potentially hazardous asteroids from the perspective of planetary defense led the space community to focus on near-Earth asteroid mission studies. A multiple near-Earth asteroid rendezvous mission with close-up observations of several objects can help to improve the characterization of these asteroids. This work explores the design of a solar-sail spacecraft for such a mission, focusing on the search of possible sequences of encounters and the trajectory optimization. This is done in two sequential steps: a sequence search by means of a simplified trajectory model and a set of heuristic rules based on astrodynamics, and a subsequent optimization phase. A shape-based approach for solar sailing has been developed and is used for the first phase. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated through a fully optimized multiple near-Earth asteroid rendezvous mission. The results show that it is possible to visit five near-Earth asteroids within 10 years with near-term solar-sail technology.
Author: | Alessandro Peloni, Matteo Ceriotti, Bernd DachwaldORCiD |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.2514/1.G000470 |
ISSN: | 0731-5090 |
Parent Title (English): | Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics |
Publisher: | AIAA |
Place of publication: | Reston, Va. |
Document Type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Year of Completion: | 2016 |
Volume: | 39 |
Issue: | 12 |
First Page: | 2712 |
Last Page: | 2724 |
Link: | https://doi.org/10.2514/1.G000470 |
Zugriffsart: | bezahl |
Institutes: | FH Aachen / Fachbereich Luft- und Raumfahrttechnik |
FH Aachen / IfB - Institut für Bioengineering | |
collections: | Verlag / American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) |