The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is currently investigating a conceptual robotic mission to collect a small boulder up to 4 m in diameter resting on the surface of a large Near Earth Asteroid (NEA). Because most NEAs are not well characterized, a great range of uncertainties in boulder mass properties and NEA surface characteristics must be considered in the design of this mission. These uncertainties are especially significant when the spacecraft ascends with the boulder in tow. The most important requirement during ascent is to keep the spacecraft in an upright posture to maintain healthy ground clearances for the two large solar arrays. This paper focuses on the initial stage (the first 50 m) of ascent from the surface. Specifically, it presents a sensitivity study of the solar array ground clearance, control authority, and accelerations at the array tips in the presence of a variety of uncertainties including various boulder sizes, densities, shapes and orientations, locations of the true center of mass, and push-off force distributions. Results are presented, and appropriate operations are recommended in the event some of the off-nominal cases occur.
Controlled Ascent From the Surface of an Asteroid
AIAA Space and Astronautics Forum and Exposition (SPACE 2014) ; 2014 ; San Diego, CA, United States
2014-08-04
Conference paper
No indication
English
Controlled Ascent from the Surface of an Asteroid
AIAA | 2014
|Controlled Ascent from the Surface of an Asteroid (AIAA 2014-4303)
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2014
|NTIS | 1965
|NTRS | 1965
|TIBKAT | 1965
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