Cano, Jorge; Cunill, Jordi; Diaz, Albert Josep; Golemis, Aris; Gupta, Subham; Innes, Daniel; Maiden, David; March, Kieran; Rael, Harvey; Shawe, James; Sierra, Victor; Torrents, Alejandro; Zorzoli Rossi, Elena; Machuca, Pablo; Neves, Rita; Sanchez Cuartielles, Joan Pau
Description:
Asteroid retrieval missions have recently attracted increasing interest from the community and could
provide opportunities for scienti c exploration, resource utilisation and even the development of planetary
defence strategies. This paper was developed as a result of a 6-month MSc group project, realised
by a total of 14 students at Cran eld University pursuing the Astronautics & Space Engineering degree.
An overall system design is proposed for a technology demonstrator mission to move a near-Earth asteroid
into an easily-accessible location where it could be further explored by future missions. The target
nal orbit is a southern halo orbit around the Lagrange point (L2) on the Sun-Earth system. ARTEMIS
(Asteroid Retrieval Technology Mission) abides by ESAs constraints for a Large (L) mission call: realised
in only one launch with Ariane 64, an operational duration of less than 15 years and a cost at completion
of at most e1100M.
The proposed mission combines the design of optimal trajectories, employs advanced solar electric
propulsion and introduces a be tting level of spacecraft autonomy. The target is the 2006 RH120 asteroid,
with an approximate diameter of 6.5 m and mass of roughly 350 tons. To re ne existing data, the
ARROW CubeSat mission (Asteroid Reconnaissance to Research Object Worthiness) is to be launched
a year prior to the main mission to probe the asteroid via a y-by. ARROW will provide valuable
information, such as the asteroids spin rate, rotational axis and better mass estimate, increasing the
overall chance of mission success. The main mission will then capture and secure the asteroid using a
mechanism of arm-like booms with xenon- lled VectranTM bags. To allow for proper adaptability to the
objects shape and mass distribution, as well as preserve the asteroid unaltered, the mechanism is fully
contained in fabric that encapsulates the asteroid.
The paper concludes that such a mission is conditionally feasible, and summarises the design process
resulting in the nal overall mission baseline design. It also examines the practicality of the suggested
design for future missions such as space debris removal or its ability to retrieve celestial bodies with
variable mass and shape. Proper adaptation of the design could allow for retrieval of similar size or
smaller objects. The future implementation of this mission may further the understanding of the origin
of the solar system and act as a catalyst to a new celestial body exploitation industry.