Asteroid Scout Research Articles

Review of Solar Sail Propulsion Mechanisms and Missions for Space Travel

Since solar sailing employs the speed of sunlight to drive spacecraft, it is an efficient and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional propulsion technologies. The physics of photon compression, the significance of novel materials and systems that enhance sailing performance, and the appropriate testing of solar sailing systems are all covered in this research paper. The main solar sailing projects— LightSail, NEA Scout, and IKAROS—are examined in this paper, and their merits, demerits, and contributions to the field are discussed. Potential solar sailing technology for extended space travel are also covered, along with space sustainability. Consider how crucial it is for space exploration in the future. The goal of this research is to demonstrate the transformative potential of navigation and to spark further developments in the exciting field of space aerospace engineering by effectively integrating mission data and current research in the ever-changing landscape of space exploration. Since solar sailing employs the speed of sunlight to drive spacecraft, it is a practical and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional propulsion technologies. The physics of photon compression, the significance of novel materials and systems that enhance sailing performance, and the appropriate testing of solar sailing systems are all covered in this research paper. The main solar sailing projects—LightSail, NEA Scout, and IKAROS—are examined in this paper, and their merits, demerits, and contributions to the field are discussed. Potential solar sailing technology for extended space travel are also covered, along with space sustainability. Pay attention to how crucial it is for future space exploration. Through the efficient integration of mission data and current research, this project seeks to address the dynamic landscape of space exploration in the industry and encourage future advancements in the exciting field of space aeronautical engineering. Additionally, it aims to illustrate how navigation can have a transforming effect. Keywords: Space Exploration, Propulsion Technology, Interstellar Travel, Spacecraft Navigation, Attitude control, Trajectory optimization, Material Durability, Deep Space Missions, Interplanetary Travel, Solar Radiation Effect, Photon Pressure, Solar sail Deployment, Orbital Mechanics, Continues Thrust.

Trajectory & maneuver design of the NEA Scout solar sail mission

The Near-Earth Asteroid Scout (NEA Scout) mission aimed to deliver a 6U CubeSat to a slow flyby of a Near Earth Asteroid using a solar sail as the primary propulsion system. NEA Scout was launched as a secondary payload aboard Artemis I, on November 16, 2022, but communication with the spacecraft was not achieved. This paper describes the target asteroid selection and the innovative trajectory and maneuver design for the NEA Scout mission, including cold gas maneuvers, multiple lunar flybys, solar sail thrusting, and design margins for solar sailing. The resulting trajectory design tools, solutions, and analyses are potentially applicable to future solar sail missions.

Indirect trajectory optimization via solar sailing primer vector theory: Minimum solar-angle transfers

Building upon the recent development of solar sailing primer vector theory and its successful applications, we propose a new formulation for indirect solar-sail trajectory optimization, which minimizes solar angle (cone angle between the sail normal and sunlight vectors) over a trajectory. The minimum solar-angle objective is introduced to address a typical demand in mission design: having the ability to design trajectories with fixed time-of-flight, which is especially crucial when the mission involves time-sensitive events, such as scientific observations with specific lighting conditions, gravity assists at specific epochs, to name a few. We derive an analytical optimal control law for minimum solar-angle sail transfers by applying Pontryagin’s optimality principle. Our theoretical results illuminate that a quantity termed solar sailing primer vector characterizes the optimal solar-sail control law for both minimum-time and minimum solar-angle transfers, as is the case in Lawden’s primer vector theory for conventional low-thrust transfers. We numerically demonstrate these theoretical results by applying them to asteroid rendezvous transfers for NASA’s NEA Scout mission. The numerical examples also reveal the numerical advantage of using the minimum solar-angle objective over the minimum-time one for solar-sail trajectory design because of the smoother optimal control profile. Solar sailing primer vector theory provides a tool to characterize the optimal control law independent of particular state representations or solution methods, enabling mission designers to combine it with a wealth of techniques developed for low-thrust trajectory optimization.

Orica and Origin to partner on Hunter Valley hydrogen hub

The exploration of space tends to move on alternate and renewable energy with a limiting mission budget. Therefore, considerable attention has been paid to utilizing solar sail as propellant-less propulsion, which takes advantage of reflecting solar photons by large size membrane sail. This chapter describes the historical development of solar sailing technology, including its advantages and applications. A set of operating principles within the area of transfer trajectory, non-Keplerian orbit generation, altitude, and structural control dynamics is then presented, along with a description of performance measurement. A survey of the current status of the art in CubeSat solar sail and a summary of completed and planned missions, such as NanoSail and NEA Scout projects, are also discussed. Finally, ongoing challenges in orbital dynamics and material technologies are proposed, along with possible technology trends and innovative concepts to develop next-generation solar sailing missions.

A fast response mission to rendezvous with an interstellar object

A solar sail propelled small satellite mission concept to intercept and potentially rendezvous with newly discovered transient interstellar objects (ISOs) is described. The mission concept derives from the proposal for a technology demonstration mission for exiting the solar system at high velocity, eventually to reach the focal region of the solar gravitational lens. The ISO mission concept is to fly a solar sail toward a holding orbit around the Sun and when the ISO orbit is confirmed, target the sailcraft to reach an escape velocity of over 6 AU/year. This would permit rapid response to a new ISO discovery and an intercept within 10 AU from the Sun. Two new proven interplanetary technologies are utilized to enable such a mission: i) interplanetary smallsats, such as those demonstrated by the MarCO mission, and ii) solar sails, such as demonstrated by LightSail and IKAROS missions and developed for NEA Scout and Solar Cruiser missions. Current technology work suggests that already within this decade such a mission could fly and reach an ISO moving through the solar system. It might enable the first encounter with an ISO to allow for imaging and spectroscopy, measurements of size and mass, potentially giving a unique information about the object’s origin and composition. A similar approach may be used to allow for a sample return.

German Aerospace Center's advanced robotic technology for future lunar scientific missions.

The Earth's moon is currently an object of interest of many space agencies for unmanned robotic missions within this decade. Besides future prospects for building lunar gateways as support to human space flight, the Moon is an attractive location for scientific purposes. Not only will its study give insight on the foundations of the Solar System but also its location, uncontaminated by the Earth's ionosphere, represents a vantage point for the observation of the Sun and planetary bodies outside the Solar System. Lunar exploration has been traditionally conducted by means of single-agent robotic assets, which is a limiting factor for the return of scientific missions. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is developing fundamental technologies towards increased autonomy of robotic explorers to fulfil more complex mission tasks through cooperation. This paper presents an overview of past, present and future activities of DLR towards highly autonomous systems for scientific missions targeting the Moon and other planetary bodies. The heritage from the Mobile Asteroid Scout (MASCOT), developed jointly by DLR and CNES and deployed on asteroid Ryugu on 3 October 2018 from JAXA's Hayabusa2 spacecraft, inspired the development of novel core technologies towards higher efficiency in planetary exploration. Together with the lessons learnt from the ROBEX project (2012–2017), where a mobile robot autonomously deployed seismic sensors at a Moon analogue site, this experience is shaping the future steps towards more complex space missions. They include the development of a mobile rover for JAXA's Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) in 2024 as well as demonstrations of novel multi-robot technologies at a Moon analogue site on the volcano Mt Etna in the ARCHES project. Within ARCHES, a demonstration mission is planned from the 14 June to 10 July 2021,1 during which heterogeneous teams of robots will autonomously conduct geological and mineralogical analysis experiments and deploy an array of low-frequency antennas to measure Jovian and solar bursts.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Astronomy from the Moon: the next decades'.

Near-Earth Asteroid Scout Flight Mission

As one of the secondary payloads on the space launch systems vehicle, the Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout will demonstrate a low-cost and innovative approach to deep space reconnaissance missions. The main objective is to image and characterize a Near-Earth asteroid. The spacecraft packages a full deep space mission into the volume of a 6U CubeSat. To enable long-term sustained propulsion to the target, a solar sail is utilized as the main propulsion system. The spacecraft bus is single string, with compact avionics. Guidance and control performance meets science requirements with margin, but limited power impacts the amount of science data that can be returned, an aspect that is in part mitigated by the introduction of novel on-board data analysis software. Following in the recent footsteps of the Mars Cube One (MarCO) mission, the first deep space CubeSat demonstration, which included the infusion of the Iris radio; the NEA Scout will continue to blaze the trail for small CubeSats for interplanetary science and reconnaissance missions. This article will provide an overview of the mission, flight system design, and unique features needed for science and propulsion.

Contingency target assessment, trajectory design, and analysis for NASA’s NEA scout solar sail mission

The presented study examines contingency target selection and trajectory design for NASA’s Near-Earth Asteroid Scout mission under the assumption of a missed lunar gravity assist. Two previously considered asteroids are selected as potential targets for the given scenario based on favorable orbital characteristics for launch dates ranging from June 27, 2020 through July 26, 2020. Initially, a simplified circular restricted 3-body problem + ideal solar sail model is utilized to survey trajectory options for a month-long launch window. Selected solutions from this data set are then converged in an N-body ephemeris + non-ideal sail model. Results suggest that NEA Scout can still perform asteroid rendezvous mission under the missed lunar gravity assist scenario with new targets, 2019 GF1, 2018 PK21, and 2007 UN12, based on the target launch dates. Further target assessment is carried out for 165 days beyond the current June 27, 2020 launch date.

Exploring our solar system with CubeSats and SmallSats: the dawn of a new era

We are on the threshold of a new era in robotic exploration of our solar system, one in which CubeSats and SmallSats will play an important role. As the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)’s lead center for robotic solar system exploration, JPL has a strategic interest in these new capabilities that enable planetary scientists to expand our knowledge of how our solar system formed, how it works, and even how life originated. In November 2018, JPL’s two Mars Cube One (MarCO) spacecraft, launched with the InSight Discovery mission, made history as they flew past Mars. This first pair of interplanetary CubeSats navigated their way independently to Mars to provide a relay capability for the InSight lander back to Earth. Lunar Flashlight and Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, two CubeSats that are currently under development, will form part of the ‘swarm’ of CubeSats escorted onto a lunar trajectory by NASA’s Artemis-1 mission—the first launch of its new Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. This paper provides an overview of these and other CubeSat and SmallSat mission developments at JPL from the author’s perspective. It is intended to inspire others to follow the trail blazed by these pioneering missions.

The Iris Deep-Space Transponder for the SLS EM-1 Secondary Payloads

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is supporting several deep-space CubeSat missions selected as secondary payloads on the Space Launch System Exploration Mission One (SLS EM-1) launch of the Orion spacecraft. Seven secondary payload CubeSat missions (Lunar Flashlight, Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, BioSentinel, Lunar IceCube, CubeSat for Solar Particles, Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper, and ArgoMoon) have baselined the Iris deep space transponder as the main telecommunications and navigation transponder for their missions. Iris, first developed for JPL's interplanetary nanospacecraft pathfinder in relevant environment mission, and further developed for JPL's Mars Cube One mission, is a software-defined radio based on various JPL flight heritage designs. The transponder operates at X-band frequencies (7.2-GHz uplink, 8.4-GHz downlink) for compatibility with NASA's Deep Space Network, but the modular hardware design allows for further expanded capabilities into other frequency bands such as UHF, S-, and Ka-band. The transponder has a maximum power consumption of 35 W at 4-W radio frequency output, with uplink sensitivities down to −150 dBm. Various encoding schemes are available for the user to choose, from traditional convolutional coding with Reed Solomon concatenation to Turbo codes, and support for low-density parity-check coding is in the plan for future support. This paper will discuss the current capabilities and specifications of the Iris deep space transponder, as well as current hardware, firmware, and software implementations, and provide a short overview of future capabilities currently in the works.

High-fidelity contingency trajectory design and analysis for NASA's near-earth asteroid (NEA) Scout solar sail Mission

Exploratory missions to investigate accessible Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) can benefit from leveraging dynamics associated with a solar sail-based spacecraft. As a part of this effort, NEA Scout is a solar sail mission designed to propel a 6U CubeSat by harnessing solar radiation pressure from the Sun. The spacecraft will be launched as a secondary payload on NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) Exploration Mission One (EM-1). As the launch of EM-1 has recently been rescheduled for December 2019, alternative target NEAs are identified. Additionally, solar sail-based trajectories for the NEA Scout mission also need to be reevaluated. In this study, high-fidelity trajectories for the NEA Scout mission are investigated for varying launch dates under the assumption of the failure of a critical propulsive maneuver. Furthermore, feasible trajectory solutions are presented for multiple candidate asteroids.

Goldstone Radar Observations of Horseshoe-orbiting Near-Earth Asteroid 2013 BS45, a Potential Mission Target

Abstract We report radar observations of near-Earth asteroid 2013 BS45 obtained during the 2013 apparition. This object is in a resonant, Earth-like orbit, and it is a backup target for NASA’s NEA Scout mission. 2013 BS45 belongs to the Arjuna orbital domain, which currently has ∼20 discovered representatives. These objects tend to be small and difficult to characterize, and 2013 BS45 is only the third Arjuna object observed with radar to date. We observed 2013 BS45 on three days at Goldstone (8560 MHz, 3.5 cm) between 2013 February 10 and 13. The closest approach occurred on February 12 at a distance of 0.0126 au. We obtained relatively weak echo power spectra and ranging data at resolutions up to 0.125 μs (18.75 m px−1). The Doppler broadening of the echo power spectra strongly suggests an upper bound on the rotation period of 1.9 minutes. The radar data, in combination with an assumption that the asteroid’s radar albedo is no higher than that of metallic NEA 1986 DA, constrain the equivalent diameter to 15 m ≤ D ≤ 38 m. The circular polarization ratio is 0.21 ± 0.06, which implies a near-surface that is relatively smooth on decimeter spatial scales. We bounded the OC radar albedo to η OC ≥ 0.09 and the optical albedo remains relatively unconstrained at 0.05 ≤ p V ≤ 0.35. The Yarkovsky acceleration has not been detected but, due to the object’s rapid rotation, would be dominated by a seasonal component whose direction and magnitude depends on the currently unknown pole orientation and thermal inertia.

Applying OntoREM to a Space Mission: Developing Requirements for the MASCOT Lander

AbstractOntoREM is an Ontology‐driven Requirements Engineering Methodology supported by software tooling, developed jointly by UWE and Airbus. OntoREM has been tested using a number of pilot cases in various domains at Airbus. In this research, OntoREM is applied to a space mission called MASCOT (Mobile Space Asteroid Scout) developed by DLR (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft‐ und Raumfahrt), Germany, together with CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales), France, and the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA). The research provided the opportunity to carry out a comparative critical evaluation of the outcomes of the application of OntoREM to MASCOT versus the outcomes of a more traditional Systems Engineering approach as applied by DLR‐Bremen. The key objective was to generate an alternative set of MASCOT requirements using OntoREM based on the existing set of MASCOT system requirements, and to compare the quality of the resulting requirements with the quality of the existing requirements in terms of correctness, completeness and consistency. The application of OntoREM to MASCOT has been successful, it appears that OntoREM is suitable for the development of requirements for space mission programmes and creates quality improvements when generating requirement specifications. About 100% additional project and system requirements were identified, while a re‐usable MASCOT project domain ontology was built during the process that may be generalised for future lander missions.