In 2010 and 2011 NASA and KISS sponsored studies to investigate the feasibility of identifying, capturing, and returning an entire (albeit small) NEA to the vicinity of Earth, and concluded that a 40-kW solar electric propulsion system launched on an Atlas 551 provided sufficient propulsion to control an asteroid's trajectory. Once secured by the spacecraft, a NEA with a naturally close encounter with Earth is nudged over a few years to target a lunar gravity assist, capturing the object into Earth orbit. With further use of solar perturbations, up to 3,600,000 kg of NEA could be placed in high-lunar orbit.
Trajectories to Nab a NEA (Near-Earth Asteroid)
AAS/AIAA Spaceflight Mechanics Meeting ; 2013 ; Kauai, HI, United States
2013-02-10
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Keine Angabe
Englisch
Postlaunch Contingency Trajectories for the Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Mission
Online Contents | 1997
|Trajectories to Nab a NEA (Near-Earth Asteroid) (AAS 13-409)
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2013
|Post-Launch Contingency Trajectories for the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Mission
British Library Conference Proceedings | 1996
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