Trajectory design for the mission ‘Hannes’

Abstract

Trajectory design for the multiple asteroid flyby mission ‘Hannes’, which is to be launched in 2002 and to last six years, is considered. Different mission options form a tree of ‘opportunities’ which is presented. Nodes of the tree are the Earth and Mars swingbys, each branch contains several sets of asteroids which can be flown by. However some branches of the tree require rather powerful launch vehicle like Molniya. Other branches are analysed in details; they include VEGA maneuver, and smaller launch vehicle (such as Kosmos or Rockot) can be used for them. Several possible spacecraft trajectories are given. Some of them include up to seven or eight asteroid flybys with total delta-V for the deep space maneuvers within 1200 m/s. Among the asteroids are such as Ceres, Pallas, Vesta etc. Tables containing main mission characteristics and figures presenting the spacecraft trajectories are given.