APIES: A mission for the exploration of the main asteroid belt using a swarm of microsatellites

Abstract

APIES (Asteroid Population Investigation and Exploration Swarm) is a mission developed by EADS Astrium in response to a European Space Agency (ESA) Call for Ideas for “swarm” missions, based on the utilization of a large number of spacecraft working cooperatively to achieve the mission objectives. The APIES baseline concept is centred on a “swarm” of 19 BElt Explorer (BEE) identical microsatellites, weighing less than 45 kg each, including their scientific payload, visiting over 100 Main Belt asteroids in multiple flybys. The BEEs are carried to the asteroid belt by a Hub and Interplanetary VEhicle (HIVE), a conventional spacecraft launched with a Soyuz–Fregat rocket, using solar electric propulsion for the transfer to the asteroid belt and acting as communication hub and control centre for the mission after the swarm deployment. Using the latest advances in systems miniaturization, propulsion, onboard autonomy and communications, the APIES mission can achieve its ambitious goal within the framework of a standard ESA mission, representing a novel mission concept example, whose feasibility is essentially linked to the use of microsatellite technology, enabling the achievement of science objectives unattainable with conventional spacecraft.