Autonomous Guidance for Asteroid Descent Using Successive Convex Optimisation Dual Quaternion Approach S

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Autonomous Guidance for Asteroid Descent Using Successive Convex Optimisation Dual Quaternion Approach S Autonomous Guidance for Asteroid Descent using Successive Convex Optimisation Dual Quaternion Approach S. Hazra Technische Universiteit Delft ii Autonomous Guidance for Asteroid Descent using Successive Convex Optimisation Dual Quaternion Approach by S. Hazra to obtain the degree of Master of Science at the Delft University of Technology, to be defended publicly on Thursday March 28, 2019 at 9:30 AM. Student number: 4598342 Project duration: June 18, 2018 – March 28, 2019 Thesis committee: Dr. ir. E. Mooij, TU Delft, Astrodynamics and Space Missions, Supervisor Dr. ir. M. Sagliano, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V., Supervisor Prof. dr. ir. P.N.A.M Visser TU Delft, Astrodynamics and Space Missions Dr. ir. C.D. Visser, TU Delft, Controls and Simulations This thesis is confidential and cannot be made public until March 28, 2020 An electronic version of this thesis is available at http://repository.tudelft.nl/. ii Abstract With the onset of the age of space travel, asteroid missions have been steadily gaining interest. The pristine nature of asteroids due to their preserved state since the formation of the Solar System is an opportunity to unravel many mysteries about the Solar System. Also with the ever-growing need for resources, asteroids prove to be a plentiful source. With the discovery of asteroids in the close vicinity of our planet and a probable threat to the preservation of life, a need for defence missions has also arisen. With many successful missions like NEAR to Eros, Rosetta to Comet 67P,Hayabusa to Itokawa, Hayabusa 2 to Ryugu, OSIRIS-REx to Bennu, etc., the requirement of precise navigation with autonomous guidance and control for future missions has been established. The ever-growing need for better computational speed and accuracy has led to the development of new representations for attitude and position of the spacecraft in the past. The usual methods of representations of position and attitude (pose) are the Cartesian coordinates and quaternions. A recent development is the si- multaneous representation of the pose of the spacecraft using dual quaternions which are eight-dimensional vectors. As of February 2019, a variety of missions using dual quaternions for relative navigation, rendezvous and docking, entry, descent and landing have been conceptualised. Recent studies have narrowed down from the existing guidance algorithms to, Successive Convexification and Sampling Based Model Predictive Optimi- sation, as future prospects for autonomous guidance of missions. These missions are limited by the lack of instantaneous ground control due to operations at very far distances from Earth. In this thesis, an attempt to incorporate these state-of-the-art guidance technologies to asteroid missions has been made. The novelty in this thesis is, using dual quaternions for SC pose and attitude representation to autonomously guide the spacecraft for mapping an asteroid and perform a touch and go descent using sampling-based motion predictive optimisation and successive convexification respectively. To achieve this objective, this thesis first browses through past missions to establish the requirements of a mission to aster- oids. Then it explores the augmented algebra of dual numbers and their application in the concept of dual quaternions. It then works towards establishing the dynamics and kinematics in the asteroid centred rotating frame using dual quaternions along with modelling the environment around the asteroids. This thesis delves into the method of convex optimisation to present its existing algorithms and develop a dynamic successive convex optimisation method to achieve better results as compared to the method developed by Mao et al. (2016). The thesis establishes the initialisation of a sampling-based model predictive optimisation method for autonomous mapping of a target asteroid. After the development and verification of these algorithms, different scenarios have been designed to find out the robustness of the dynamic successive convexification method. The scenarios have been run by both the Cartesian quaternion and dual quaternion based algorithms. They are found to behave similarly in their results, besides the latter being computationally more expensive as proved by different theses so far. The algorithm performs better than the one developed by Szmuk et al. (2017), but faces difficulties with badly scaled problems as is the nature of missions to asteroids. The software used for the thesis is ECOS, which faces numerical problems in these mission scenarios even when the problem is feasible and has an optimal result. The availability of a solution to the optimal control problem depends on the scaling of the penalty weights used in the cost function to penalise virtual controls and trust region, which are used to prevent infeasibility and bound the problem, respectively. It also depends on finding an appropriate final time for the descent along with the number of nodes for discretisation. This research proves, that successive convexification indeed provides a speedy solution for an autonomous precision descent but needs further work to make it robust and stable. The outcome of this thesis is to carry out further research to understand the complex relations, between the scale of the problem, simulation parameters for the optimal control problem and final time in order to make the algorithm robust and safe for an autonomous mission. Another important future research prospect is to incorporate the sampling based model predictive optimisation, for the SC to autonomously map the target body and help in selecting a landmark for a descent. iii iv Preface Missions to mere rocky remnants in the Solar System aka asteroids have quickly gained interest in the past few decades as a consequence of the inherent curiosity of human beings. The pristine nature of these celestial bodies has drawn the interest of humans towards landing on them and bringing back samples to find some answers about the Solar System formation process. I am honoured to have had the opportunity to be a part of this research area and contribute the little I could towards the development of such missions. From sending a probe to one of the gaseous planets to landing on an asteroid, this has been my journey from my very first literature survey to the final one and this report is the culmination of that journey to fulfill the requirements to receive my Master of Science degree from the Aerospace engineering faculty at the Delft University of Technology. I am immensely grateful to my supervisor Erwin Mooij to have presented me with the opportunity to work under Marco Sagliano at DLR with the thesis topic. With both their guidance, this thesis has taken the present form and I hope someday it will guide a spacecraft to safely descend on an asteroid. Every meeting I have had with Erwin has always been positive and motivating. I am glad he believed in me and had patience with my failures along the journey. At DLR, Marco always found time from his busy schedule to answer my doubts and queries, most of which were pretty basic, but he never showed disappointment. He urged me on, to try a step at a time and kept me on track even when I was back in Delft after my six months in Bremen. I am thankful for Prof. dr. ir. P.N.A.M. Visser and Dr. ir. C.D. Visser to have agreed to be a part of this thesis as the defense committee. I also thank everyone I have come across and made friends with during this period, especially Bronius who worked on the navigation part of this mission. He always answered my questions as much as he could and provided me with his insights about how navigation instruments work. I would like to thank all my friends, who kept me sane, grounded and fed. I would be lost without their support and cooking skills. I would like to thank my girlfriend, who has been there for my tears every single time I have lost hope and has been a constant in my world of variables. Lastly, I would like to thank my par- ents, the two people who were more worried about my nutrition levels than the convergence of my algorithm. Without them, I would not be the person I am today or a graduate to be and for that, I will always be in their debt. This thesis has tested my capabilities to the extent of making me question my dream of becoming an aerospace engineer, but at the same time has brought me great pleasure in doing the research successfully and I hope you, the reader, will find it useful, interesting and understandable. S. Hazra Delft, 2019 v vi Nomenclature Notation C Complex Numbers N Natural Numbers P Projective Space R Real Numbers Dual number/vector _ Unit vector ^ Discrete time matrix/vector » Solution states and controls ¡ ˇ Dual vector multiplication £ , Quaternion multiplication ­ ¯ ˇ , ˇ Dual quaternion multiplication ­ ¯ Latin Symbols A Jacobian matrix for the states - A Spacecraft space set - B Jacobian matrix for the controls - C Direction Cosines Matrix - C Configuration space set - e Unit direction vector - f Function - f (X ) Process function - g(X ) Inequality constraints - h(X ) Equality constraints - H Half space set - I Identity matrix - Lc Linear cost function - Screw axis, Moment, Rotation angle, Distance traversed respec- lˆ,m,θ,d various tively (Dual Quaternion screw coordinates) n Normal vector - N Concatenated virtual control vector various N c Non-linear cost function - O Obstacle space set - qr Rotation quaternion - qd Translation quaternion - qˇ Dual Quaternion - Q Stacked Matrices - r Position vector m r e Engine thrust vector from COM m s,S Slack Variables - u,U Individual and concatenated control vector - w Penalty weight - W World space set - x, X Individual and concatenated state vector various z, Z Individual and concatenated solution state derivative vector - a Acceleration m/s2 A Area m2 vii viii 0.
Recommended publications
  • Hayabusa2 and the Formation of the Solar System PPS02-25
    PPS02-25 JpGU-AGU Joint Meeting 2017 Hayabusa2 and the formation of the Solar System *Sei-ichiro WATANABE1,2, Hayabusa2 Science Team2 1. Division of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University, 2. JAXA/ISAS Explorations of small solar system bodies bring us direct and unique information about the formation and evolution of the Solar system. Asteroids may preserve accretion processes of planetesimals or pebbles, a sequence of destructive events induced by the gas-driven migration of giant planets, and hydrothermal processes on the parent bodies. After successful small-body missions like Rosetta to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Dawn to Vesta and Ceres, and New Horizons to Pluto, two spacecraft Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-REx are now traveling to dark primitive asteroids.The Hayabusa2 spacecraft journeys to a C-type near-earth asteroid (162173) Ryugu (1999 JU3) to conduct detailed remote sensing observations and return samples from the surface. The Haybusa2 spacecraft developed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) was successfully launched on 3 Dec. 2014 by the H-IIA Launch Vehicle and performed an Earth swing-by on 3 Dec. 2015 to set it on a course toward its target. The spacecraft will reach Ryugu in the summer of 2018, observe the asteroid for 18 months, and sample surface materials from up to three different locations. The samples will be delivered to the Earth in Nov.-Dec. 2020. Ground-based observations have obtained a variety of optical reflectance spectra for Ryugu. Some reported the 0.7 μm absorption feature and steep slope in the short wavelength region, suggesting hydrated minerals.
    [Show full text]
  • Matematikken Viser Vej Til Mars
    S •Matematikken The viser vej til Mars Kim Plauborg © The Terma Group 2016 THE BEGINNING Terma has been in Space since man walked on the Moon! © The Terma Group 2016 FROM ESRO TO EXOMARS Terma powered the first comet landing ever! BREAKING NEWS The mission ends today when the Rosetta satellite will set down on the surface In 2014 the Rosetta satellite deployed the small lander Philae, which landed on the cometof 67P morethe than 10 comet years after Rosetta was launched. © The Terma Group 2016 FROM ESRO TO EXOMARS Rosetta Mars Express Technology Venus Express evolution and Galileo enhancement Small GEO BepiColombo ExoMars © The Terma Group 2016 Why go Mars? Getting to and landing on Mars is difficult ! © The Terma Group 2016 THE EXOMARS PROGRAMME Two ESA missions to Mars in cooperation with Roscosmos with the main objective to search for evidence of life 2016 Mission Trace Gas Orbiter Schiaparelli 2020 Mission Rover Surface platform © The Terma Group 2016 EXOMARS 2016 14th March 2016 Launched from Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan © The Terma Group 2016 EXOMARS 2016 16th October 2016 Separation of Schiaparelli from the orbiter © The Terma Group 2016 SCHIAPARELLI Schiaparelli (EDM) - an entry, descent and landing demonstrator module © The Terma Group 2016 EXOMARS 2016 19th October 2016 Landing of Schiaparelli the surface of Mars © The Terma Group 2016 EXOMARS 2016 19th October 2016 Landing of Schiaparelli the surface of Mars © The Terma Group 2016 EXOMARS 2020 © The Terma Group 2016 TERMA AND EXOMARS Terma deliveries to the ExoMars 2016 mission • Remote Terminal Power Unit for Schiaparelli • Mission Control System • Spacecraft Simulator • Support for the Launch and Early Orbit Phase © The Terma Group 2016 ExoMars RTPU The RTPU is a central unit in the Schiaparelli lander.
    [Show full text]
  • New Voyage to Rendezvous with a Small Asteroid Rotating with a Short Period
    Hayabusa2 Extended Mission: New Voyage to Rendezvous with a Small Asteroid Rotating with a Short Period M. Hirabayashi1, Y. Mimasu2, N. Sakatani3, S. Watanabe4, Y. Tsuda2, T. Saiki2, S. Kikuchi2, T. Kouyama5, M. Yoshikawa2, S. Tanaka2, S. Nakazawa2, Y. Takei2, F. Terui2, H. Takeuchi2, A. Fujii2, T. Iwata2, K. Tsumura6, S. Matsuura7, Y. Shimaki2, S. Urakawa8, Y. Ishibashi9, S. Hasegawa2, M. Ishiguro10, D. Kuroda11, S. Okumura8, S. Sugita12, T. Okada2, S. Kameda3, S. Kamata13, A. Higuchi14, H. Senshu15, H. Noda16, K. Matsumoto16, R. Suetsugu17, T. Hirai15, K. Kitazato18, D. Farnocchia19, S.P. Naidu19, D.J. Tholen20, C.W. Hergenrother21, R.J. Whiteley22, N. A. Moskovitz23, P.A. Abell24, and the Hayabusa2 extended mission study group. 1Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA ([email protected]) 2Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Kanagawa, Japan 3Rikkyo University, Tokyo, Japan 4Nagoya University, Aichi, Japan 5National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tokyo, Japan 6Tokyo City University, Tokyo, Japan 7Kwansei Gakuin University, Hyogo, Japan 8Japan Spaceguard Association, Okayama, Japan 9Hosei University, Tokyo, Japan 10Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea 11Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan 12University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan 13Hokkaido University, Hokkaido, Japan 14University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Fukuoka, Japan 15Chiba Institute of Technology, Chiba, Japan 16National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Iwate, Japan 17National Institute of Technology, Oshima College, Yamaguchi, Japan 18University of Aizu, Fukushima, Japan 19Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA 20University of Hawai’i, Manoa, HI, USA 21University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA 22Asgard Research, Denver, CO, USA 23Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ, USA 24NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, USA 1 Highlights 1.
    [Show full text]
  • (101955) Bennu from OSIRIS-Rex Imaging and Thermal Analysis
    ARTICLES https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-019-0731-1 Properties of rubble-pile asteroid (101955) Bennu from OSIRIS-REx imaging and thermal analysis D. N. DellaGiustina 1,26*, J. P. Emery 2,26*, D. R. Golish1, B. Rozitis3, C. A. Bennett1, K. N. Burke 1, R.-L. Ballouz 1, K. J. Becker 1, P. R. Christensen4, C. Y. Drouet d’Aubigny1, V. E. Hamilton 5, D. C. Reuter6, B. Rizk 1, A. A. Simon6, E. Asphaug1, J. L. Bandfield 7, O. S. Barnouin 8, M. A. Barucci 9, E. B. Bierhaus10, R. P. Binzel11, W. F. Bottke5, N. E. Bowles12, H. Campins13, B. C. Clark7, B. E. Clark14, H. C. Connolly Jr. 15, M. G. Daly 16, J. de Leon 17, M. Delbo’18, J. D. P. Deshapriya9, C. M. Elder19, S. Fornasier9, C. W. Hergenrother1, E. S. Howell1, E. R. Jawin20, H. H. Kaplan5, T. R. Kareta 1, L. Le Corre 21, J.-Y. Li21, J. Licandro17, L. F. Lim6, P. Michel 18, J. Molaro21, M. C. Nolan 1, M. Pajola 22, M. Popescu 17, J. L. Rizos Garcia 17, A. Ryan18, S. R. Schwartz 1, N. Shultz1, M. A. Siegler21, P. H. Smith1, E. Tatsumi23, C. A. Thomas24, K. J. Walsh 5, C. W. V. Wolner1, X.-D. Zou21, D. S. Lauretta 1 and The OSIRIS-REx Team25 Establishing the abundance and physical properties of regolith and boulders on asteroids is crucial for understanding the for- mation and degradation mechanisms at work on their surfaces. Using images and thermal data from NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft, we show that asteroid (101955) Bennu’s surface is globally rough, dense with boulders, and low in albedo.
    [Show full text]
  • How a Cartoon Series Helped the Public Care About Rosetta and Philae 13 How a Cartoon Series Helped the Public Care About Rosetta and Philae
    How a Cartoon Series Helped the Public Care about Best Practice Rosetta and Philae Claudia Mignone Anne-Mareike Homfeld Sebastian Marcu Vitrociset Belgium for European Space ATG Europe for European Space Design & Data GmbH Agency (ESA) Agency (ESA) [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Carlo Palazzari Emily Baldwin Markus Bauer Design & Data GmbH EJR-Quartz for European Space Agency (ESA) European Space Agency (ESA) [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Keywords Karen S. O’Flaherty Mark McCaughrean Outreach, space science, public engagement, EJR-Quartz for European Space Agency (ESA) European Space Agency (ESA) visual storytelling, fairy-tale, cartoon, animation, [email protected] [email protected] anthropomorphising Once upon a time... is a series of short cartoons1 that have been developed as part of the European Space Agency’s communication campaign to raise awareness about the Rosetta mission. The series features two anthropomorphic characters depicting the Rosetta orbiter and Philae lander, introducing the mission story, goals and milestones with a fairy- tale flair. This article explores the development of the cartoon series and the level of engagement it generated, as well as presenting various issues that were encountered using this approach. We also examine how different audiences responded to our decision to anthropomorphise the spacecraft. Introduction internet before the spacecraft came out of exciting highlights to come, using the fairy- hibernation (Bauer et al., 2016). The four tale narrative as a base. The hope was that In late 2013, the European Space Agency’s short videos were commissioned from the video would help to build a degree of (ESA) team of science communicators the cross-media company Design & Data human empathy between the public and devised a number of outreach activ- GmbH (D&D).
    [Show full text]
  • DLR Developments and Application Ideas for Interplanetary Cubesats
    DLR developments and application ideas for interplanetary cubesats iCubeSat, Milano 2019 Jens Biele1, Michael Maibaum1, Caroline Lange2, Thimo Grundmann2, Stephan Ulamec1, Marcus Thomas Knopp3, Frank-Cyrus Roshani3 1DLR German Aerospace Center, RB-MUSC, Cologne, Germany 2DLR German Aerospace Center, Bremen, Germany 3DLR German Aerospace Center, GSOC, Munich, Germany www.DLR.de • Chart 3 > Lecture > Author • Document > Date SKAD-Study [FRANK, MARCUS] • Orbiter as relais station for Mars-Rover • ………. Designs flown or studied (DLR) Hopper(10-25 kg) MASCOT (30, 70 kg) Philae (100 kg) Leonard MASCOT (10 kg) Folie 4 > Vortrag > Autor Folie 5 > Vortrag > Autor Study Flow of MASCOT („how to shrink a lander..“) • December 2008 – September 2009: feasibility study, with CNES, in context of Marco Polo and Hayabusa-2, with common requirements: • 3 iterations of different mass (95kg, 35kg & 10kg) and P/L • Settled on 10 kg lander package including 3 kg of P/L • Ho, T.-M., et al. (2016). "MASCOT—The Mobile Asteroid Surface Scout Onboard the Hayabusa2 Mission." Space Science Reviews 208(1-4): 339– 374. • ➔ Design of MASCOT 10 kg: a nanosat (30x30*20 cm³) . Could be a 18 U cubesat! Large ~ 95 kg, Philae hertitage Middle ~ 35 kg, Xtra Small ~ 10 kg, No post-landing Up-righting + mobility mobility MASCOT Payload (25% of total mass!) Instrument Science Goals Heritage Institute; PI/IM Mass [kg] MAG magnetization of the NEA MAG of ROMAP on Rosetta TU Braunschweig Lander (Philae), ESA VEX, 0,15 → formation history Themis K.H. Glassmeier / U. Auster mineralogical composition ESA ExoMars, Russia and characterize grains Phobos GRUNT, ESA size and structure of Rosetta, ESA ExoMars IAS Paris µOmega surface soil samples at μ- rover 2018, Rosetta / Philae J.P.
    [Show full text]
  • An Overview of Hayabusa2 Mission and Asteroid 162173 Ryugu
    Asteroid Science 2019 (LPI Contrib. No. 2189) 2086.pdf AN OVERVIEW OF HAYABUSA2 MISSION AND ASTEROID 162173 RYUGU. S. Watanabe1,2, M. Hira- bayashi3, N. Hirata4, N. Hirata5, M. Yoshikawa2, S. Tanaka2, S. Sugita6, K. Kitazato4, T. Okada2, N. Namiki7, S. Tachibana6,2, M. Arakawa5, H. Ikeda8, T. Morota6,1, K. Sugiura9,1, H. Kobayashi1, T. Saiki2, Y. Tsuda2, and Haya- busa2 Joint Science Team10, 1Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan ([email protected]), 2Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, JAXA, Japan, 3Auburn University, U.S.A., 4University of Aizu, Japan, 5Kobe University, Japan, 6University of Tokyo, Japan, 7National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Japan, 8Research and Development Directorate, JAXA, Japan, 9Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, 10Hayabusa2 Project Summary: The Hayabusa2 mission reveals the na- Combined with the rotational motion of the asteroid, ture of a carbonaceous asteroid through a combination global surveys of Ryugu were conducted several times of remote-sensing observations, in situ surface meas- from ~20 km above the sub-Earth point (SEP), includ- urements by rovers and a lander, an active impact ex- ing global mapping from ONC-T (Fig. 1) and TIR, and periment, and analyses of samples returned to Earth. scan mapping from NIRS3 and LIDAR. Descent ob- Introduction: Asteroids are fossils of planetesi- servations covering the equatorial zone were performed mals, building blocks of planetary formation. In partic- from 3-7 km altitudes above SEP. Off-SEP observa- ular carbonaceous asteroids (or C-complex asteroids) tions of the polar regions were also conducted. Based are expected to have keys identifying the material mix- on these observations, we constructed two types of the ing in the early Solar System and deciphering the global shape models (using the Structure-from-Motion origin of water and organic materials on Earth [1].
    [Show full text]
  • March 21–25, 2016
    FORTY-SEVENTH LUNAR AND PLANETARY SCIENCE CONFERENCE PROGRAM OF TECHNICAL SESSIONS MARCH 21–25, 2016 The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel and Convention Center The Woodlands, Texas INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT Universities Space Research Association Lunar and Planetary Institute National Aeronautics and Space Administration CONFERENCE CO-CHAIRS Stephen Mackwell, Lunar and Planetary Institute Eileen Stansbery, NASA Johnson Space Center PROGRAM COMMITTEE CHAIRS David Draper, NASA Johnson Space Center Walter Kiefer, Lunar and Planetary Institute PROGRAM COMMITTEE P. Doug Archer, NASA Johnson Space Center Nicolas LeCorvec, Lunar and Planetary Institute Katherine Bermingham, University of Maryland Yo Matsubara, Smithsonian Institute Janice Bishop, SETI and NASA Ames Research Center Francis McCubbin, NASA Johnson Space Center Jeremy Boyce, University of California, Los Angeles Andrew Needham, Carnegie Institution of Washington Lisa Danielson, NASA Johnson Space Center Lan-Anh Nguyen, NASA Johnson Space Center Deepak Dhingra, University of Idaho Paul Niles, NASA Johnson Space Center Stephen Elardo, Carnegie Institution of Washington Dorothy Oehler, NASA Johnson Space Center Marc Fries, NASA Johnson Space Center D. Alex Patthoff, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Cyrena Goodrich, Lunar and Planetary Institute Elizabeth Rampe, Aerodyne Industries, Jacobs JETS at John Gruener, NASA Johnson Space Center NASA Johnson Space Center Justin Hagerty, U.S. Geological Survey Carol Raymond, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Lindsay Hays, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Paul Schenk,
    [Show full text]
  • Abstracts of the 50Th DDA Meeting (Boulder, CO)
    Abstracts of the 50th DDA Meeting (Boulder, CO) American Astronomical Society June, 2019 100 — Dynamics on Asteroids break-up event around a Lagrange point. 100.01 — Simulations of a Synthetic Eurybates 100.02 — High-Fidelity Testing of Binary Asteroid Collisional Family Formation with Applications to 1999 KW4 Timothy Holt1; David Nesvorny2; Jonathan Horner1; Alex B. Davis1; Daniel Scheeres1 Rachel King1; Brad Carter1; Leigh Brookshaw1 1 Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder 1 Centre for Astrophysics, University of Southern Queensland (Boulder, Colorado, United States) (Longmont, Colorado, United States) 2 Southwest Research Institute (Boulder, Connecticut, United The commonly accepted formation process for asym- States) metric binary asteroids is the spin up and eventual fission of rubble pile asteroids as proposed by Walsh, Of the six recognized collisional families in the Jo- Richardson and Michel (Walsh et al., Nature 2008) vian Trojan swarms, the Eurybates family is the and Scheeres (Scheeres, Icarus 2007). In this theory largest, with over 200 recognized members. Located a rubble pile asteroid is spun up by YORP until it around the Jovian L4 Lagrange point, librations of reaches a critical spin rate and experiences a mass the members make this family an interesting study shedding event forming a close, low-eccentricity in orbital dynamics. The Jovian Trojans are thought satellite. Further work by Jacobson and Scheeres to have been captured during an early period of in- used a planar, two-ellipsoid model to analyze the stability in the Solar system. The parent body of the evolutionary pathways of such a formation event family, 3548 Eurybates is one of the targets for the from the moment the bodies initially fission (Jacob- LUCY spacecraft, and our work will provide a dy- son and Scheeres, Icarus 2011).
    [Show full text]
  • Science Exploration and Instrumentation of the OKEANOS Mission to a Jupiter Trojan Asteroid Using the Solar Power Sail
    Planetary and Space Science xxx (2018) 1–8 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Planetary and Space Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pss Science exploration and instrumentation of the OKEANOS mission to a Jupiter Trojan asteroid using the solar power sail Tatsuaki Okada a,b,*, Yoko Kebukawa c,d, Jun Aoki d, Jun Matsumoto a, Hajime Yano a, Takahiro Iwata a, Osamu Mori a, Jean-Pierre Bibring e, Stephan Ulamec f, Ralf Jaumann g, Solar Power Sail Science Teama a Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Chuo-ku, Sagamihara, 252-5210, Japan b The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan c Faculty of Engineering, Yokohama National University, Japan d Graduate School of Science, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Japan e Institut dʼAstrophysique Spatiale, Orsay, France f German Aerospace Center, Cologne, Germany g German Aerospace Center, Berlin, Germany ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: An engineering mission OKEANOS to explore a Jupiter Trojan asteroid, using a Solar Power Sail is currently under Solar system formation study. After a decade-long cruise, it will rendezvous with the target asteroid, conduct global mapping of the Jupiter trojans asteroid from the spacecraft, and in situ measurements on the surface, using a lander. Science goals and enabling Solar power sail instruments of the mission are introduced, as the results of the joint study between the scientists and engineers Lander from Japan and Europe. Mass spectrometry OKEANOS 1. Introduction ocean water and life. Lucy (Levison et al., 2017), a Jupiter Trojan multi-flyby mission, has Jupiter Trojan asteroids are located in the long-term stable orbits been selected as a NASA Discovery class mission, which aims for un- around the Sun-Jupiter Lagrange points (L4 or L5) Most of them are derstanding the variation and diversity of Jupiter Trojans.
    [Show full text]
  • The Orbital Distribution of Near-Earth Objects Inside Earth’S Orbit
    Icarus 217 (2012) 355–366 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Icarus journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/icarus The orbital distribution of Near-Earth Objects inside Earth’s orbit ⇑ Sarah Greenstreet a, , Henry Ngo a,b, Brett Gladman a a Department of Physics & Astronomy, 6224 Agricultural Road, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada b Department of Physics, Engineering Physics, and Astronomy, 99 University Avenue, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada article info abstract Article history: Canada’s Near-Earth Object Surveillance Satellite (NEOSSat), set to launch in early 2012, will search for Received 17 August 2011 and track Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), tuning its search to best detect objects with a < 1.0 AU. In order Revised 8 November 2011 to construct an optimal pointing strategy for NEOSSat, we needed more detailed information in the Accepted 9 November 2011 a < 1.0 AU region than the best current model (Bottke, W.F., Morbidelli, A., Jedicke, R., Petit, J.M., Levison, Available online 28 November 2011 H.F., Michel, P., Metcalfe, T.S. [2002]. Icarus 156, 399–433) provides. We present here the NEOSSat-1.0 NEO orbital distribution model with larger statistics that permit finer resolution and less uncertainty, Keywords: especially in the a < 1.0 AU region. We find that Amors = 30.1 ± 0.8%, Apollos = 63.3 ± 0.4%, Atens = Near-Earth Objects 5.0 ± 0.3%, Atiras (0.718 < Q < 0.983 AU) = 1.38 ± 0.04%, and Vatiras (0.307 < Q < 0.718 AU) = 0.22 ± 0.03% Celestial mechanics Impact processes of the steady-state NEO population.
    [Show full text]
  • Planetary Science from a Next-Gen Suborbital Platform: Sleuthing the Long Sought After Vulcanoid Aster- Oids
    Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (2010) (2010) 4004.pdf Planetary Science from a Next-Gen Suborbital Platform: Sleuthing the Long Sought After Vulcanoid Aster- oids. S.A. Stern1 , D.D. Durda1, M. Davis1, and C.B. Olkin1. Southwest Research Institute, Suite 300, 1050 Walnut Street, Boulder, CO 80302, [email protected]. Introduction: We are on the verge of a revolution in pheric haze and turbulence are among the daunting scientific access to space. This revolution, fueled by challenges faced by ground-based observers searching billionaire investors like Richard Branson and Jeff for objects near the Sun at twilight. Consequently, only Bezos, is fielding no less than three human flight sub- a few visible-wavelength ground-based searches for orbital systems in the coming 24 months. This new Vulcanoids have been conducted. stable of vehicles, originally intended to open up a Experiment: We will conduct a large area search space tourism market, includes Virgin Galactic’s for Vulcanoids using our SWUIS imager developed for SpacesShip2, Blue Origin’s New Shepard, and Space Shuttle and high altitude F-18 flights. We will XCOR’s Lynx. Each offers the capability to fly multi- conduct our Vulcanoid search experiment at altitudes ple humans to altitudes of 70-140 km on a frequent of 100-140 km near twilight so that the Vulcanoid re- (daily to weekly) basis for per-seat launch costs of gion is seen above a dark Earth with the Sun below the $100K-$200K/launch. The total investment in these depressed horizon. In this way we will eliminate the systems is now approaching $1B, and test flights of scattered light problems that have dogged all ground- each are set to begin in 2010.
    [Show full text]