Asteroid Hovering Missions from a Fuel-Consumption Viewpoint

Abstract

wei wang mail.tsinghua.edu.cn. † Ph.D. Candidate, wud17 mails.tsinghua.edu.cn. ‡ Professor, g.mengali ing.unipi.it. Senior Member AIAA. § Professor, a.quarta ing.unipi.it. Associate Fellow AIAA ¶ Professor, baoyin tsinghua.edu.cn. Senior Member AIAA (corresponding author).

Feasibility Analysis and Synchronization Control for Underactuated Spacecraft Formation Hovering

“…Spacecraft formation hovering is defined as the follower keeping a constant position relative to the leader, thus being in an equilibrium state [1,2]. Compared to formation reconfiguration [3,4] and satellite constellation [5], such a hovering strategy is more convenient for space exploration and provides higher resolution observation and measurement [6,7]. Most of the existing control schemes presented for formation hovering, whether open- [8] or closed-loop ones [9], are based on the fully-actuated dynamics [10].…”

Time-Optimal Formation Establishment Around a Slowly Rotating Asteroid

“…Other mission scenarios, consisting in the use of a spacecraft formation system for asteroid deflection [9][10][11][12], require an advanced (onboard) autonomous formation flying control system. In fact, from an operational standpoint, it is preferable to deploy a formation along suitable hovering [13] or periodic orbits [14,15] around the target asteroid in order to initiate the asteroid gravity database and to chart a local geomorphologic map. When multiple spacecraft operate in close proximity, a (virtual) synthetic aperture radar can be ideally assembled [16] to improve the resolution of stereoscopic images, with a substantial reduction of the overall mission cost.…”

Recent development of landing dynamics over small celestial bodies

“…惯性悬停(heliostationary flight) [5] 以及小天体随体系下 的本体悬停(body-fixed hovering flight) [6,7] . 惯性悬停时 探测器相对小天体和太阳保持位置不变, 可在较远距 离处测绘小天体整体外形等数据.…”