SCORPIO: A SMALL MISSION FOR MULTIPHASE AUTONOMOUS NAVIGATION DEMONSTRATION AND NEO CHARACTERIZATION
- Paper number
IAC-08.A3.5.8
- Author
Ms. Mariella Graziano, GMV S.A., Spain
- Coauthor
Mr. Jesus Gil-Fernandez, GMV S.A., Spain
- Coauthor
Mr. Carlos Corral van Damme, GMV S.A., Spain
- Year
2008
- Abstract
The population of NEO is large and diverse (more than 5200, with this number rapidly increasing). The NEO currently known exhibit a wide variety of physical and chemical properties (internal structure, density, composition, etc.). There is still much uncertainty in the precise values of these properties for most NEO’s. In this sense space missions can provide essential information to characterize the properties of the different families of NEO not only for scientific purposes but also in view of setting-up an overall risk mitigation strategy. Independently from this last but important aspect, a NEO mission represents a highly suitable and representative test bench for the in orbit validation of advanced technologies like an optical autonomous navigation system. This paper illustrates the results of a GMV internal study where a mission to both characterize multiple NEOs and testing on flight an advanced multi-mission highly autonomous GNC system based on optical measurements, ANTARES, has been designed. In order to incorporate as much as possible different missions phases, SCORPIO has been designed so to implement and validate the following autonomous GNC functionalities along a trajectory performing multiple fly-by of different NEO: · Interplanetary cruise · Fly-by with a minor body. · Emulation of an impact with a NEO · Impact with a NEO The following types of optical observations are used for demonstration: punctual objects, extended objects and feature matching (image matching and landmark identification). The major constraints applied while designing this mission were defined by the constraints imposed by these optical navigation features in terms of targets visibility. The merits of each trajectory are related to the number of NEOs visited, the variety of their properties (taxonomic type, size), the duration of the mission, the required launch energy (C3), and the total Delta-V budget. In order to increase the cost efficiency of the mission and to test as many mission phases as possible, the scope was to flying by as many asteroids and as diverse as possible, with the shortest mission duration and lowest Delta-V. At that scope the trajectory optimization has been conducted into two different steps. The first one was dedicated to the search of the primary target body so to guarantee the shortest transfer time and Delta-V budget. Once identified the baseline mission an effort was dedicated to the identification of asteroids along the nominal mission trajectory that could be used also as GNC test bench (i.e. adequate optical properties). The performances of the autonomous navigation systems along the designed mission trajectory are evaluated and presented.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-08.A3.5.8.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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