Related papers: The Feasibility of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids…
In the framework of multi-body dynamics, successive encounters with a third body, even if well outside of its sphere of influence, can noticeably alter the trajectory of a spacecraft. Examples of these effects have already been exploited by…
Stellar radial velocity (RV) measurements have proven to be a very successful method for detecting extrasolar planets. Analysing RV data to determine the parameters of the extrasolar planets is a significant statistical challenge owing to…
Gravity-Assisted maneuvers have been used as a technique to reduce fuel consumption in deep space missions for several decades now. It opened the doors of the exterior solar system. The literature shows those results, as well as new…
In a previous article, we obtained the first-ever list of astrometric binary asteroid candidates. Some of these candidates have now been confirmed. In that previous work, however, the details of the statistical methods were not provided.…
We present $V$-band photometry of the 20,000 brightest asteroids using data from the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) between 2012 and 2018. We were able to apply the convex inversion method to more than 5,000 asteroids…
Given that secular perturbations in a binary system not only excite high orbital eccentricities but also alter the planetary orbital inclination, the classical Keplerian orbital model is no longer applicable for orbital retrieval. The…
Given trajectories with gaps, we investigate methods to tighten spatial bounds on areas (e.g., nodes in a spatial network) where possible rendezvous activity could have occurred. The problem is important for reducing the onerous amount of…
We describe systematic ranging, an orbit determination technique especially suitable to assess the near-term Earth impact hazard posed by newly discovered asteroids. For these late warning cases, the time interval covered by the…
Orbit determination of spacecraft in orbit has been mostly dependent on either GNSS satellite signals or ground station telemetry. Both methods present their limitations, however: GNSS signals can only be used effectively in earth orbit,…
Close planetary flybys are frequently employed as a technique to place spacecraft on extreme solar system trajectories that would otherwise require much larger booster vehicles or may not even be feasible when relying solely on chemical…
In this study, we demonstrate that the flyby anomaly, an unexpected acceleration detected in some of the gravitational assists of the Galileo, NEAR, Cassini and Rosetta spacecraft, could be probed by accurate orbital tracking available in…
Accurate and swift localization of the target is crucial in emergencies. However, accurate position data of a target mobile device, typically obtained from global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), cellular networks, or WiFi, may not…
This paper presents an innovative terminal landing guidance law that utilizes an analytic solution derived from the gravity turn trajectory. The characteristics of the derived solution are thoroughly investigated, and the solution is…
Designing spacecraft trajectories remains challenging in the presence of stochastic effects such as maneuver execution errors and observation uncertainties. Although covariance control and belief-space planning provide useful tools for…
This thesis details an effort to generate astrophysically interesting solutions to the two-body problem in General Relativity. The thesis consists of two main parts. The first part presents an analytical variational principle for describing…
In this work we describe a genetic algorithm which is used in order to study orbits of minor bodies in the frames of close encounters. We find that the algorithm in combination with standard orbital numerical integrators can be used as a…
The GRACE mission has been providing valuable new information on time variations in the Earth's gravity field since 2002. In addition, the GRACE Follow-On mission is scheduled to be flown soon after the end of life of the GRACE mission in…
The Mars crossing region constitutes a path to deliver asteroids from the Inner Main Belt to the Earth crossing space. While both the Inner Main Belt and the population of Earth crossing asteroids contains a significant fraction of…
Some human mission trajectories to Mars include flybys of Venus. These flybys provide opportunities to practice deep space human operations, and offer numerous safe-return-to-Earth options, before committing to longer and lower-cadence…
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) use continues to increase, including operating beyond line of sight in unknown environments where the vehicle must autonomously generate a trajectory to safely navigate. In this article, we develop a trajectory…