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Dawn Statistical Maneuver Design for Vesta OperationsIn July of 2011 the Dawn spacecraft is scheduled to begin orbital operations at Vesta, a large main-belt asteroid. Dawn is a NASA Discovery mission that uses solar-electric low-thrust ion propulsion for both interplanetary cruise and orbital operations. Navigating between the Dawn project's four targeted science orbits at Vesta requires a plan that accounts for uncertainties not only in thrust execution, orbit determination, and other spacecraft forces, but also large uncertainties in characteristics of Vesta - such as the asteroid's gravity field and pole orientation. Accommodating these uncertainties requires strategic use of low-thrust maneuvers reserved for statistical trajectory corrections. This paper describes the placement and evaluation of low-thrust statistical maneuvers during two key phases of the Vesta mission along with a discussion of the tools, constraints, and methods used to plan those maneuvers.
Document ID
20120000675
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Conference Paper
External Source(s)
Authors
Parcher, Daniel W.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Whiffen, Gregory J.
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 25, 2013
Publication Date
February 13, 2011
Subject Category
Space Communications, Spacecraft Communications, Command And Tracking
Report/Patent Number
AAS 11-180
Meeting Information
Meeting: 21st AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting
Location: New Orlean, LA
Country: United States
Start Date: February 13, 2011
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
Solar Electric Propulsion
Orbit Transfer
Ion Propulsion
Maneuver Design
Dawn

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