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Optimal design of near-Earth asteroid sample-return trajectories in the Sun–Earth–Moon system

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Abstract

In the 6th edition of the Chinese Space Trajectory Design Competition held in 2014, a near-Earth asteroid sample-return trajectory design problem was released, in which the motion of the spacecraft is modeled in multi-body dynamics, considering the gravitational forces of the Sun, Earth, and Moon. It is proposed that an electric-propulsion spacecraft initially parking in a circular 200-km-altitude low Earth orbit is expected to rendezvous with an asteroid and carry as much sample as possible back to the Earth in a 10-year time frame. The team from the Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization, Chinese Academy of Sciences has reported a solution with an asteroid sample mass of 328 tons, which is ranked first in the competition. In this article, we will present our design and optimization methods, primarily including overall analysis, target selection, escape from and capture by the Earth–Moon system, and optimization of impulsive and low-thrust trajectories that are modeled in multi-body dynamics. The orbital resonance concept and lunar gravity assists are considered key techniques employed for trajectory design. The reported solution, preliminarily revealing the feasibility of returning a hundreds-of-tons asteroid or asteroid sample, envisions future space missions relating to near-Earth asteroid exploration.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude to the Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and the State key Laboratory of Astronautic Dynamics for releasing this interesting problem, which gave us a chance to conduct research on the trajectory design for NEA exploration missions. Meanwhile, this work was also supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 11372311) and the grant from the State key Laboratory of Astronautic Dynamics (2014-ADL-DW0201). In addition, we can provide the data files and verification programs for our submitted solution, and anyone who is interested in this solution can send a request via Email to gaoyang@csu.ac.cn.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Space Utilization, Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100094, China

    Shengmao He, Chao Peng, Jian Ma, Xiaolong Zhu & Yang Gao

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Shengmao He, Zhengfan Zhu, Jian Ma & Xiaolong Zhu

  3. Academy of Opto-Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100094, China

    Zhengfan Zhu

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  1. Shengmao He
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  2. Zhengfan Zhu
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  3. Chao Peng
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  4. Jian Ma
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  5. Xiaolong Zhu
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  6. Yang Gao
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Correspondence to Yang Gao.

Appendix: Ephemerides of the Sun, the Moon, and the asteroid “2003 SM84”

Appendix: Ephemerides of the Sun, the Moon, and the asteroid “2003 SM84”

See Tables 10, 11, 12.

Table 10 The epoch and classical orbital elements of the Earth (referenced in the heliocentric ecliptic coordinate frame)
Full size table
Table 11 The epoch and classical orbital elements of the Moon (referenced in the Earth-centered ecliptic coordinate frame)
Full size table
Table 12 The epoch and classical orbital elements of the asteroid “2003 SM84” (referenced in the heliocentric ecliptic coordinate frame)
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He, S., Zhu, Z., Peng, C. et al. Optimal design of near-Earth asteroid sample-return trajectories in the Sun–Earth–Moon system. Acta Mech. Sin. 32, 753–770 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10409-015-0527-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10409-015-0527-1

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