Trajectories in Close Proximity to Asteroids

Spacecraft motion in close proximity to irregularly shaped, rotating bodies such as asteroids presents a unique dynamical environment as compared to most space missions. There are several fundamental novelties in this environment that spacecraft must deal with. These include the possibility of orbital instabilities that can act over very short time spans (on the order of hours for some systems), possible non-uniform rotation of the central gravity field, divergence of traditional gravity field representations when close to the asteroid surface, dominance of perturbing forces, an extremely large asteroid model parameter space that must be prepared for in the absence of reliable information, and the possibility of employing new and novel trajectory control techniques such as hovering and repeated landings on the asteroid surface. An overview of how these novelties impact the space of feasible close proximity operations and how different asteroid model properties will affect their implementation is given. In so doing, four fundamental types of close proximity operations will be defined. Listed in order of increasing technical difficulty these are: (1) close, stable orbits; (2) low-altitude flyovers; (3) landing trajectories; and (4) hovering trajectories. The feasibility and difficulty of implementing these operations will vary as a function of the asteroid shape, size, density, and rotation properties, and as a function of the spacecraft navigation capability. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.