CASTAway: An Asteroid Main Belt Tour and Survey
Abstract
CASTAway is a mission concept to explore our Solar System's main asteroid belt. Asteroids and comets provide a window into the formation and evolution of our Solar System and the composition of these objects can be inferred from space-based remote sensing using spectroscopic techniques. Variations in composition across the asteroid populations provide a tracer for the dynamical evolution of the Solar System. The mission combines a long-range (point source) telescopic survey of over 10,000 objects, targeted close encounters with 10 to 20 asteroids and serendipitous searches to constrain the distribution of smaller (e.g. 10 m) size objects into a single concept. With a carefully targeted trajectory that loops through the asteroid belt, CASTAway would provide a comprehensive survey of the main belt at multiple scales. The scientific payload comprises a 50 cm diameter telescope that includes an integrated low-resolution (R = 30 to 100) spectrometer and visible context imager, a thermal (e.g. 6 to 16 microns) imager for use during the flybys, and modified star tracker cameras to detect small (approx. 10 m) asteroids. The CASTAway spacecraft and payload have high levels of technology readiness and are designed to fit within the programmatic and cost caps for a European Space Agency medium class mission, whilst delivering a significant increase in knowledge of our Solar System.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1710.10191,
title = {CASTAway: An Asteroid Main Belt Tour and Survey},
author = {N. E. Bowles and C. Snodgrass and A Gibbings and J. P. Sanchez and J. A. Arnold and P. Eccleston and T. Andert and A. Probst and G. Naletto and A. C. Vandaele and J. de Leon and A. Nathues and I. R. Thomas and N. Thomas and L. Jorda and V. Da Deppo and H. Haack and S. F. Green and B. Carry and K. L. Donaldson Hanna and J. Leif Jorgensen and A. Kereszturi and F. E. DeMeo and M. R. Patel and J. K. Davies and F. Clarke and K. Kinch and A. Guilbert-Lepoutre and J. Agarwal and A. S. Rivkin and P. Pravec and S. Fornasier and M. Granvik and R. H. Jones and N. Murdoch and K. H. Joy and E. Pascale and M. Tecza and J. M. Barnes and J. Licandro and B. T. Greenhagen and S. B. Calcutt and C. M. Marriner and T. Warren and I. Tosh},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1710.10191},
year = {2018}
}
Comments
40 pages, accepted by Advances in Space Research October 2017