Human Path-Planning for Autonomous Spacecraft Guidance at Binary Asteroids

Abstract

Rather than using baseline-oriented approaches, autonomous spacecraft trajectory planning within asteroid systems may be based on human behavior that is learned by demonstration. In this paper, we conducted a numerical experiment to observe a human agent steering in real-time spacecraft motion within simulated binary asteroid environments. The resulting collection of human-planned trajectories demonstrates effective guidance mechanisms and reveals underlying path-planning processes that may serve for more agile and autonomous asteroid exploration.