Date of Award
3-10-2010
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Astronautical Engineering
Department
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
First Advisor
William E. Wiesel, PhD
Abstract
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) catalog of near-Earth objects (NEOs) such as asteroids and comets contains over 6600 asteroids and 150 comets as of February of 2010. This includes over 1000 potentially hazardous asteroids, or objects with orbits that pass close enough to Earth to pose a potential impact threat. The asteroid community believes there are a significant number of objects still undiscovered, which makes finding, tracking, and calculating missions to study these objects an active area of research. This study was based on finding orbit solutions using Earth gravity assist to visit one near-Earth object (NEO) a year for 16 years with minimal characteristic velocities for a conventional impulsive thrust propulsion system. Using a user-defined launch date, the program iterates on a number of variables to populate lists of acceptable targets and outputs key mission parameters and 3D plots of the orbits involved.
AFIT Designator
AFIT-GA-ENY-10-M11
DTIC Accession Number
ADA517553
Recommended Citation
Tobey, Uriah J., "Mission Analysis for Multiple Rendezvous of Near-Earth Asteroids Using Earth Gravity Assist" (2010). Theses and Dissertations. 2069.
https://scholar.afit.edu/etd/2069