Trajectory options for low-cost missions to easily retrievable objects

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Qiao, Dong and McInnes, Colin (2014) Trajectory options for low-cost missions to easily retrievable objects. In: 2nd Conference on Dynamics and Control of Space Systems, DyCoSS2, 2014-03-24 - 2014-03-26.

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Abstract

Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are of contemporary, since asteroids and comets hold the key clues to understanding the origin of the solar system and the formation of the planets, and also have a speculated wealth of material resources. The exploitation of these resources has been discussed as a means to lower the cost of future space endeavours. Recent, a new family of so-called Easily Retrievable Objects that can be transported from accessible heliocentric orbits into the Earth’s neighbourhood at affordable costs, have been presented. In this paper, the trajectory options for low-cost missions to EROs are explored. We consider a wide variety of multi-impulse transfer, gravity-assist transfer and gravity-assist transfer with mid-maneuvers to obtain low launch energy and rendezvous trajectories to EROs. There trajectories are constructed by analytic and numerical search methods, and hybrid optimization algorithms including global search and local search to find the optimal rendezvous opportunities. The best rendezvous opportunities for currently known EROs in the next 20 years are reported. The relevant mission costs are analyzed. A discussion of general characteristics of the various trajectory types is followed.

CORE (COnnecting REpositories)