Mass-Optimized Gravity Tractor for Asteroid Deflection
Abstract
A method for asteroid deflection that makes use of a spacecraft moving back and forth on a segment of a Keplerian orbit about the asteroid is studied with the aim of optimizing the initial gross mass of the spacecraft. The corresponding optimization problem is formulated as a discrete nonlinear optimal control problem where the parameters of the orbit segment are the control variables. A hypothetical asteroid deflection problem is solved numerically using the method of dynamic programming, and it is shown that a gravity tractor can be obtained that is significantly more efficient in terms of deflection attained per unit mass of the spacecraft, compared to similar gravity tractors in the literature.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Guidance Control Dynamics
- Pub Date:
- December 2022
- DOI:
- 10.2514/1.G006574
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2110.04631
- Bibcode:
- 2022JGCD...45.2318K
- Keywords:
-
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics;
- Physics - Space Physics
- E-Print:
- 32 pages, 8 figures, submitted to the Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics