Nanospacecraft fleet for multi-asteroid touring with electric solar wind sails

We propose a distributed close-range survey of hundreds of asteroids representing many asteroid families, spectral types and sizes. This can be implemented by a fleet of nanospacecraft (e.g., 4–5-unit CubeSats) equipped with miniature imaging and spectral instruments (from near ultraviolet to near infrared). To enable the necessary large delta-v, each spacecraft carries a single electric sail tether which taps the momentum from the solar wind. Data are stored in a flash memory during the mission and downlinked at an Earth flyby. This keeps deep-space network telemetry costs down, despite the large number of individual spacecraft. To navigate without the use of the deep-space network, optical navigation is required to track stars, planets and asteroids. The proposed mission architecture is scalable both scientifically and financially. A fleet of 50 spacecraft will be able to obtain images and spectral data from 200 to 300 near-Earth and main belt asteroids. It allows study of those asteroid families and spectroscopic types for which currently no close-range observations are available. This paper presents science objectives, overall science traceability matrix, example targets and technical challenges associated with the mission. We open to discuss preliminary requirements, mission and spacecraft designs.

[1]  Pekka Janhunen,et al.  Spin Plane Control and Thrust Vectoring of Electric Solar Wind Sail , 2013 .

[2]  Alessandro Antonio Quarta,et al.  Electric Sail Missions to Potentially Hazardous Asteroids , 2010 .

[3]  Richard P. Binzel,et al.  An extension of the Bus asteroid taxonomy into the near-infrared , 2009 .

[4]  Clark R. Chapman,et al.  Cratering on Asteroids , 2015 .

[5]  Rob Sherwood,et al.  Using Autonomy Flight Software to Improve Science Return on Earth Observing One , 2005, J. Aerosp. Comput. Inf. Commun..

[6]  Shyam Bhaskaran,et al.  Autonomous navigation for Deep Space Missions , 2012 .

[7]  G. Naletto,et al.  CASTAway: An asteroid main belt tour and survey , 2017, Advances in Space Research.

[8]  Alessandro Morbidelli,et al.  The Collisional Evolution of the Main Asteroid Belt , 2015 .

[9]  Richard P. Binzel,et al.  The Near-Earth Object Population: Connections to Comets, Main-Belt Asteroids, and Meteorites , 2015 .

[10]  Pekka Janhunen,et al.  Simulation study of solar wind push on a charged wire: basis of solar wind electric sail propulsion , 2007 .

[11]  D. Campbell,et al.  Binary Asteroids in the Near-Earth Object Population , 2002, Science.

[12]  Andrew S. Rivkin,et al.  The Main-belt Asteroid and NEO Tour with Imaging and Spectroscopy (MANTIS) , 2015, 2016 IEEE Aerospace Conference.

[13]  D. Plettemeier,et al.  The Castalia mission to Main Belt Comet 133P/Elst-Pizarro , 2017, Advances in Space Research.

[14]  Andrew S. Rivkin,et al.  Asteroids and the James Webb Space Telescope , 2015, 1510.08414.

[15]  Daniel J. Scheeres,et al.  Asteroid Interiors and Morphology , 2015 .

[16]  F. Scholten,et al.  The landing(s) of Philae and inferences about comet surface mechanical properties , 2015, Science.

[17]  William F. Bottke,et al.  Formation of asteroid satellites and doublet craters by planetary tidal forces , 1996, Nature.

[18]  Robert Zee,et al.  Precision Formation Flight: The CanX-4 and CanX-5 Dual Nanosatellite Mission , 2007 .

[19]  Vladislavs Bezrukovs,et al.  Broadband receiving systems for 4.58-8.8 GHz radio astronomical observations at Irbene radio telescopes RT-32 and RT-16 , 2020 .

[20]  David Lario,et al.  Radial dependence of proton peak intensities and fluences in SEP events: Influence of the energetic particle transport parameters , 2007 .

[21]  Hiroshi Yamakawa,et al.  Electric Solar Wind Sail Kinetic Energy Impactor for Asteroid Deflection Missions , 2016 .

[22]  A. Cellino,et al.  New cases of unusual polarimetric behavior in asteroids , 2008 .

[23]  Akira Fujiwara,et al.  Hayabusa—Its technology and science accomplishment summary and Hayabusa-2 , 2006 .

[24]  Simon F. Green,et al.  Asteroid belt multiple flyby options for M-Class Missions , 2016 .

[25]  Harold F. Levison,et al.  An Archaean heavy bombardment from a destabilized extension of the asteroid belt , 2012, Nature.

[26]  Grégory Beaumet,et al.  FEASIBILITY OF AUTONOMOUS DECISION MAKING ON BOARD AN AGILE EARTH‐OBSERVING SATELLITE , 2011, Comput. Intell..

[27]  D. Jewitt,et al.  THE ACTIVE ASTEROIDS , 2011, 1112.5220.

[28]  Edward Hæggström,et al.  One kilometer (1 km) electric solar wind sail tether produced automatically. , 2013, The Review of scientific instruments.

[29]  Masatoshi Kobayashi.  Iris Deep-Space Transponder for SLS EM-1 CubeSat Missions , 2017 .

[30]  Pekka Janhunen,et al.  Thrust vectoring of an electric solar wind sail with a realistic sail shape , 2017, 1703.08975.

[31]  Pekka Janhunen,et al.  Overview of electric solar wind sail applications , 2014 .

[32]  Andris Slavinskis,et al.  ESTCube-1 nanosatellite for electric solar wind sail in-orbit technology demonstration , 2014 .

[33]  Akira Tsuchiyama,et al.  Hayabusa Sample Return Mission , 2015 .

[34]  R. Castano,et al.  Autonomous science agents and sensor Webs: EO-1 and beyond , 2006, 2006 IEEE Aerospace Conference.

[35]  P E Dodd,et al.  Current and Future Challenges in Radiation Effects on CMOS Electronics , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.

[36]  Robert Jedicke,et al.  Surveys, Astrometric Follow-Up, and Population Statistics , 2015, 1503.04272.

[37]  J. Biele,et al.  Rosetta Lander – Philae: Landing preparations☆ , 2015 .

[38]  Andrew S. Rivkin,et al.  Astronomical Observations of Volatiles on Asteroids , 2015, 1502.06442.

[39]  Pekka Janhunen,et al.  Electric Sailing under Observed Solar Wind Conditions , 2009 .

[40]  Marco Delbó,et al.  E–ELT: Expected Applications to Asteroid Observations in the Thermal Infrared , 2009 .

[41]  Takafumi Ootsubo,et al.  Albedo distribution of main-belt asteroids based on IRAS, AKARI, and WISE , 2014 .

[42]  Pekka Janhunen,et al.  ESTCube-2 plasma brake payload for effective deorbiting , 2017 .

[43]  Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay,et al.  Review of Formation Flying and Constellation Missions Using Nanosatellites , 2016 .

[44]  Riho Vendt,et al.  ESTCube-1 in-orbit experience and lessons learned , 2015, IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine.

[45]  Cordell Grant,et al.  Three Stellar Years (and Counting) of Precision Photometry by the Brite Astronomy Constellation , 2016 .

[46]  Bruce M. Wiegmann.  The Heliopause Electrostatic Rapid Transit System (HERTS) - Design, Trades, and Analyses Performed in a Two Year NASA Investigation of Electric Sail Propulsion Systems , 2017 .

[47]  Fernando H. Aguirre,et al.  Iris Transponder Communications and Navigation from Deep Space , 2014 .

[48]  P Salminen,et al.  Invited article: Electric solar wind sail: toward test missions. , 2010, The Review of scientific instruments.

[49]  Benoit Carry,et al.  Solar System Science with ESA Euclid , 2017, 1711.01342.

[50]  Richard P. Binzel,et al.  The Compositional Structure of the Asteroid Belt , 2015 .