Near Earth Asteroid Low-Energy Redirection
Faculty Mentor Name
Davide Conte
Format Preference
Poster
Abstract
There are over 30,000 discovered Near Earth Objects (NEO) orbiting the Sun. As humanity strives to learn more about our Solar System, asteroids are a key component to that research. Previously, we have sent probes to investigate various asteroids such as the OSIRIS-REx and DART missions, but if we want to learn more about their origins and potentially mine their resources, the next step is to make reaching asteroids more accessible by bringing them closer to us. Our research will focus on whether it is possible, feasible, and efficient to move one or more of these NEOs from a heliocentric orbit to a more accessible and useful cislunar orbit using a method known as weak stability boundary (WSB) trajectories. This method could vastly reduce the energy requirement for capturing asteroids by leveraging the perturbation of the Sun over long periods of time. This would, consequently, lower the propellant needed to move these asteroids using other more conventional trajectories and could simplify and reduce the cost of a future asteroid redirect mission and asteroid resource utilization. We are narrowing down asteroid candidates by looking at the asteroids‘ physical characteristics, the orbital characteristics of the asteroids‘ heliocentric orbits, and the characteristics of their close encounters with Earth. We are using particle swarm optimization as well as a qualitative analysis of the WSB in the Circular Restricted Three Body Problem. analysis of the WSB in the Circular Restricted Three Body Problem.
Near Earth Asteroid Low-Energy Redirection
There are over 30,000 discovered Near Earth Objects (NEO) orbiting the Sun. As humanity strives to learn more about our Solar System, asteroids are a key component to that research. Previously, we have sent probes to investigate various asteroids such as the OSIRIS-REx and DART missions, but if we want to learn more about their origins and potentially mine their resources, the next step is to make reaching asteroids more accessible by bringing them closer to us. Our research will focus on whether it is possible, feasible, and efficient to move one or more of these NEOs from a heliocentric orbit to a more accessible and useful cislunar orbit using a method known as weak stability boundary (WSB) trajectories. This method could vastly reduce the energy requirement for capturing asteroids by leveraging the perturbation of the Sun over long periods of time. This would, consequently, lower the propellant needed to move these asteroids using other more conventional trajectories and could simplify and reduce the cost of a future asteroid redirect mission and asteroid resource utilization. We are narrowing down asteroid candidates by looking at the asteroids‘ physical characteristics, the orbital characteristics of the asteroids‘ heliocentric orbits, and the characteristics of their close encounters with Earth. We are using particle swarm optimization as well as a qualitative analysis of the WSB in the Circular Restricted Three Body Problem. analysis of the WSB in the Circular Restricted Three Body Problem.