Evaluation of Mother-Daughter Architectures for Asteroid Belt Exploration

Vance, Leonard; Asphaug, Erik; Thangavelautham, Jekan

doi:10.2514/6.2019-0618

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 3 publications

(4 reference statements)

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“…At the time of this work, spacecraft swarms have been considered as platforms to explore main belt asteroids utilizing distributed sensor networks [22,51], motherdaughter swarm configurations [64] and as gravimetry platforms for asteroids through flybys [20,52]. A major focus of asteroid exploration is the search for valuable resources such as water for spacecraft propulsion [65,66].…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitude Control of Spacecraft Swarms for Visual Mapping of Planetary Bodies

Nallapu

Thangavelautham

2019

2019 IEEE Aerospace Conference

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Planetary bodies such as asteroids, comets, and planetary moons are high-value science targets as they hold important information about the formation and evolution of our solar system. However, due to their low-gravity, variable sizes and shapes, dedicated orbiting spacecraft missions around these target bodies is difficult. Therefore, many planetary bodies are observed during flyby encounters, and consequently, the mapping coverage of the target body is limited. In this work, we propose the use of a spacecraft swarm to provide complete surface maps of a planetary body during a close encounter flyby. With the advancement of low-cost spacecraft technology, such a swarm can be realized by using multiple miniature spacecraft. The design of a swarm mission is a complex multi-disciplinary problem. To get started, we propose the Integrated Design Engineering & Automation of Swarms (IDEAS) software. In this work, we will introduce the development of the Automated Swarm Designer module of the software. The Automated Swarm Designer module will use evolutionary algorithms to optimize the design of swarms. The designed swarm will use 2 attitude control strategies to map the surface of a target body, namely: Nadir Pointing (NP), and Field of View Sweeping (FoV Sweeping). In the former strategy, the spacecraft are commanded to passively observe the sub-satellite point on the target body whenever the target is in the field of view of the individual spacecraft. This strategy is used when the observing instrument on board the spacecraft is large enough to capture the target from the desired encounter distance. In case the instrument is not large enough, then the spacecraft will have to maneuver their field of view to improve the coverage. The Field of View Sweeping strategy describes one such maneuver to improve coverage. In this strategy, the spacecraft in the swarm are commanded to sweep their fields of view about their principal axis normal to the swarm plane.The current work addresses different aspects of the swarm design problem. First, the coverage problem is addressed, and the parameters: instrument size, and target flyby distance are determined. Following this, the modeling of the swarm is described, where the individual spacecraft are arranged to define a circular plane around the target body during the encounter. Then the encounter trajectories of the spacecraft swarm are modeled. Here a Newton-Raphson iterative scheme using the state transition matrix of the dynamics is proposed for the entire swarm, which finds the trajectories between the desired starting points and destination points of the spacecraft within a specified flyby duration. Following this, the two proposed attitude control strategies are then described as they occur on these flyby trajectories. Then the design of these swarms is presented using as 2 optimization problems. The proposed strategies are used to develop a numerical simulator which will serve as the Automated Swarm Designer module of IDEAS for visual mapping missions. Finally, the simulator d...

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Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitude Control of Spacecraft Swarms for Visual Mapping of Planetary Bodies

Nallapu

Thangavelautham

2019

2019 IEEE Aerospace Conference

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“…Improvements in retrieval techniques could plausibly reduce mission risks and costs significantly. Mother-Daughter architectures have also been explored, exploring the plausibility of daughter vehicles to undertake local missions in swarms which would would not be plausible with a single spacecraft [64]. This also avoid a single daughter craft having to have long-range communications such as using inflatable antennas [66].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of Techniques Enabling Suborbital Small Object Capture Around Low Gravity Asteroids

Vance¹,

Thangavelautham²

2020

Preprint

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The exploration of small body asteroids provides direct access to the primitive building blocks of our solar system. Sample and return missions enable chemical and radioisotope studies which not only provide evidence for the formation of the solar system, but also a basic understanding of where resources might be found for future exploitation. The touch-down and sample techniques established by Hayabusa-2 and OSIRIS-REx accomplish this mission by physically touching down on the asteroid and collecting samples into a basket extended via a probe from the bottom of the spacecraft. This technique has been demonstrated to work, but contains a high cost in both mission operations as well as the size and complexity of the collection mechanism itself. This paper explores an alternative sample and return technique by exploiting the recent discovery of regolith particle ejections from Bennu. Particles ejected from the surface of Bennu are typically 1 cm in size and spend several hours in flight, suggesting the possibility that nanospacecraft deployed from the mother-spacecraft could chase down, collect and return with the sample with minimal sensor and delta-V capability. Key aspects of this mission are developed to reduce risk, and an overall mission concept is developed to establish plausibility.

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