Preliminary Design of an European Asteroid Sample Return Mission
- Paper number
IAC-07-A5.I.-A3.I.B.13
- Author
Dr. Kian Yazdi, EADS Astrium Ltd., United Kingdom
- Coauthor
Angelo Povoleri, EADS Astrium, United Kingdom
- Coauthor
Xavier Sembely, EADS Astrium, France
- Coauthor
Jean-Marc Bouilly, EADS Astrium, France
- Coauthor
Piergiovanni Magnani, Italy
- Coauthor
- Coauthor
Mrs. Marie-Claire Perkinson, EADS Astrium Ltd., United Kingdom
- Coauthor
Dr. Paolo D Arrigo, EADS Astrium Ltd., United Kingdom
- Year
2007
- Abstract
Near Earth Asteroids (NEA) are of great interest to space scientists, not only because these small bodies are still rather unknown territory, but also because they can provide invaluable insight into the history and formation of the solar system. Study and knowledge of their properties is also vital for the mitigation of any Earth impact threat. Numerous challenges are associated with NEA missions and a wide range of possible mission and system conceptual options exist to address these challenges. The purpose of the activity presented in this paper is using results of an investigation and assessment of mission concept alternatives and configuration options to identify the most cost-effective low-risk baseline for a given set of reference scientific objectives. Latter comprise sample return of a significant amount of asteroid regolith material, remote sensing of the asteroid to characterise the mass properties, geometry and topology, and in order to select possible landing sites. To allow for minimum cost a short chemical mission to C-type asteroid 1999JU3 is baselined involving a short-stay on the surface, only to complete sampling and verify successful sample acquisition. Anchoring and subsurface/rock drilling is disregarded, which would imply more complex and risky operations. Instead, an autonomous touch-and-go sampling mechanism was conceptualised during the work, which is designed to obtain regolith material from the top-layer but also some material below including pebbles and debris. A trade of two final sampling mechanisms and three final spacecraft configurations is summarised and a preliminary system resource budget is presented. Furthermore the option of staying on the surface for a longer period of time to allow for a limited number of in-situ investigations or rather deployment of an in-situ surface science package for surface and subsurface material analysis is addressed. The resulting baseline concept is a robust mission proposal that is cost-effective and feasible within the next decade with offering top science return.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-07-A5.I.-A3.I.B.13.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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