Concurrent Redirection and Attitude Control of an Asteroid

• This paper demonstrates the applicability of two low-thrust spacecraft for the task of concurrently redirecting an asteroid and controlling its attitude. Through the use of available observational data, a synthetic near-Earth asteroid, with suitable characteristics for a resource utilization mission, is designed. The asteroid is given an initial orientation and angular velocity, such that it is in a tumbling state. The two spacecraft are attached to the asteroid surface, and employ low-thrust ion thrusters for the attitude control and redirection of the asteroid. The spacecraft first detumble the asteroid body using their torque-inducing thrusters, and then re-orient the asteroid such that the redirection thrusters are aligned with the redirection thrust vector. The spacecraft then ensure the asteroid's orientation is aligned with the redirection thrust vector throughout the entire trajectory transfer maneuver, while ensuring the angular velocity remains bounded around zero. The trajectory design is a low-thrust maneuver, based on Gauss' variational equations, which redirects the asteroid from its orbit about the Sun to rendezvous with Earth. A linear control law is employed for both the detumbling and redirection maneuver with attitude control. The overall performance of the system and the applicability of the approach are discussed.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Rymd- och flygteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Aerospace Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Onboard space systems

Rymdtekniska system

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)