Orbit propagation around small bodies using spherical harmonic coefficients obtained from polyhedron shape models

Missions to asteroids have been the trend in space exploration for the last years. They provide information about the formation and evolution of the Solar System, contribute to direct planetary defense tasks, and could be potentially exploited for resource mining. Be their purpose as it may, the factor that all these mission types have in common is the challenging dynamical environment they have to deal with. The gravitational environment of a certain asteroid is most of the times not accurately known until very late mission phases when the spacecraft has already orbited the body for some time.