Low-thrust tour of the main belt asteroids

Marilena Di Carlo, Massimiliano Vasile

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution book

3 Citations (Scopus)
39 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This work presents some preliminary results on the low-thrust tour of the main asteroid belt. The asteroids are visited through a series of fly-by’s that minimise the total cost of the manoeuvres. The sequence of asteroids to visit and the initial orbit for the spacecraft are chosen based on the Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance (MOID) between the orbit of the asteroids and the orbit of the spacecraft. The transfers between asteroids are designed using a low-thrust analytical model that provides nearly optimal solutions with coast and thrust arcs. The mission analysis is completed with a study of the transfer of the spacecraft from the Earth to the first orbit of the tour.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, 2016
Place of PublicationReston
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Sep 2016
EventAIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, 2016 - Long Beach, United States
Duration: 13 Sep 201616 Sep 2016

Publication series

NameAIAA Space Forum
PublisherAmerican Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc

Conference

ConferenceAIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Conference, 2016
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityLong Beach
Period13/09/1616/09/16

Keywords

  • low-thrust
  • asteroid belt
  • minimum orbit intersection distance
  • thrust arcs
  • spacecraft

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