Related papers: A Minimal Four-Thruster System for Comet-Based Int…
Interstellar objects (ISOs) motivate a coupled mission-design and inference question relevant to spacecraft dynamics and control in extreme environments: if volatile-rich, rotating comet-like bodies were used for sustained deep-space…
Comets are the most pristine planetesimals left from the formation of the Solar System. They carry unique information on the materials and the physical processes which led to the presence of planets and moons. Many important questions about…
The use of electric low-thrust propulsion systems for orbit maneuvers is becoming a popular choice among satellite manufacturers due to their inherent merits over their chemical counterparts. Many designers choose to incorporate multiple of…
This study presents autonomous guidance and control strategies for the purpose of reconfiguring close-range multi-satellite formations. The formation under consideration includes $N$ under-actuated deputy satellites and an uncontrolled…
Equipping a spacecraft with multiple solar-powered electric engines (of the same or different types) compounds the task of optimal trajectory design due to presence of both real-valued inputs (power input to each engine in addition to the…
With the growing deployment of small satellites (such as CubeSats, Nanosats, Picosats, and Femtosats) in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for targeted applications like imaging, communication, data storage, and rendezvous-docking mission, there is…
This paper presents a novel approach for the preliminary design of Low-Thrust, many-revolution transfers. The main feature of the novel approach is a considerable reduction in the control parameters and a consequent gain in computational…
Consuming long-range interplanetary medium with fuel for driving plasma thrust is vital. Methods of capturing the space environment depending on its density and the ship velocity are indispensable issues to extract the space environment as…
In this paper, the repeat-groundtrack orbit maintenance problem is addressed for spacecraft driven by electric propulsion. An adaptive solution is proposed, which combines an hysteresis controller and a recursive least squares filter. The…
We present a study of the current state of knowledge concerning spacecraft operations and potential hazards while operating near a comet nucleus. Starting from simple calculations comparing the cometary coma environment to benign conditions…
The quasi-satellite (QS) phenomenon makes two celestial bodies to fly near each other (Mikkola et al. 2006) and that effect can be used also to make artificial satellites move in tandem. We consider formation flight of two or three…
In this work we explore a new dynamical path for the delivery of low-inclination comets. In a configuration formed by an interior giant planet and an exterior massive debris disk, where the mass is accounted for by the 50 largest objects in…
We study the orbital architecture of multi-planet systems detected by the Kepler transit mission using N-body simulations, focusing on the orbital spacing between adjacent planets in systems showing four or more transiting planets. We find…
The discovery of the first two interstellar objects implies that, on average, every star contributes a substantial amount of material to the galactic population by ejecting such bodies from the host system. Since scattering is a chaotic…
A vast wealth of literature exists on the topic of rocket trajectory optimisation, particularly in the area of interplanetary trajectories due to its relevance today. Studies on optimising interstellar and intergalactic trajectories are…
This paper deals with the impulsive formation control of spacecraft in the presence of constraints on the position vector and time. Determining a set of path constraints can increase the safety and reliability in an impulsive relative…
Evidence of jet precession in many galactic and extragalactic sources has been reported in the literature. Much of this evidence is based on studies of the kinematics of the jet knots, which depends on the correct identification of the…
Spacecraft relative motion planning is concerned with the design and execution of maneuvers relative to a nominal target. These types of maneuvers are frequently utilized in missions such as rendezvous and docking, satellite inspection and…
The scattering of small bodies by planets is an important dynamical process in planetary systems. We present an analytical model to describe this process using the simplifying assumption that each particle's dynamics is dominated by a…
Accurate information of inertial parameters is critical to motion planning and control of space robots. Before the launch, only a rudimentary estimate of the inertial parameters is available from experiments and computer-aided design (CAD)…