Recent developments in miniaturization of spacecraft systems and science instruments have led to great interest in their application to deep space missions. A recent JPL study, for example, considered the design of a small spacecraft which could yield useful science data from fast flybys of the near-earth asteroids. Called AIM (Asteroid Investigation with Microspacecraft), three spacecrafts would be launched with Pegasus into low earth orbit (LEO), separated, and then remain there up to 2 weeks, each waiting for the opportune time to inject to a flyby with a preselected asteroid. Each spacecraft has its own kick stage for this injection maneuver. This paper briefly describes the spacecraft design and capability, the asteroid flyby opportunities available within the coming decade, and other possible mission scenarios which could take advantage of a single launch multi-spacecraft option.
A multi-mission flyby strategy for the near-earth asteroids
1992 AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Conference ; 1992 ; Hilton Head Island, SC, United States
1992-01-01
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Keine Angabe
Englisch
Optimal nodal flyby with near-Earth asteroids using electric sail
Online Contents | 2014
|Optimal nodal flyby with near-Earth asteroids using electric sail
Elsevier | 2014
|