If a planetary-mass body were present in the asteroid belt, the orbits of the terrestrial planets and those of the giant planets would be more closely coupled. A greater exchange of angular momentum could affect the stability of the terrestrial planets. Moreover, the planet in the asteroid belt could itself excite terrestrial planet eccentricities. To study these effects, we have simulated seve...

Which nations should be concerned about asteroid impacts? 261 impact corridors were calculated based on orbital data and impact probabilities of observed asteroids that could impact the Earth before 2100. The corridors, in the form of impact probability distributions were projected onto the Earth map. The cumulative impact probability distribution was combined with the Earth population producin...

Introduction: The observed presence of grooves on Eros can be interpreted as being solely due to faulting resulting from the transmission of impact shock waves [1]. However, early studies found two large-scale lineations on Eros (Callisto Fossae and Rahe Dorsum) to be coplanar with a large flat region (the southern " facet ") on one end of the asteroid [2]. This CF-RD-SF plane was interpreted a...

Introduction: In recent years, spacecraft observations of asteroids 951 Gaspra, 243 Ida, 253 Mathilde, and 433 Eros have shown the overriding dominance of impact processes with regard to the structure and appearance of these small, irregular bodies. One currently unanswered question is: to what degree does seismic shaking from impacts affect the surface morphology of these bodies [1]? Through d...

This paper investigates a convex optimization based method that can rapidly generate the fuel optimal asteroid powered descent trajectory. The ultimate goal is to autonomously design the optimal powered descent trajectory on-board the spacecraft immediately prior to the descent burn. Compared to a planetary powered landing problem, the major difficulty is the complex gravity field near the surf...

The data from the analysis of samples returned by Hayabusa from asteroid 25143 Itokawa are used to constrain the preaccretion history, the geological activity that occurred after accretion, and the dynamical history of the asteroid from the main belt to near-Earth space. We synthesize existing data to pose hypotheses to be tested by dynamical modeling and the analyses of future samples returned...

Orbit determination and control problems are sometimes solved using linearized methods, even though nonlinear effects can sometimes dominate the system. This paper addresses ways to parallelize computational algorithms for numerical integrators and nonlinear relative motion equations. An application of the proposed methods to mutual gravitation of a fragmented asteroid is presented, with analys...

Material collected from an asteroid’s surface can be used to increase gravitational attraction between the asteroid and a Gravity Tractor (GT); the spacecraft therefore operates more effectively and is referred to as an Enhanced Gravity Tractor (EGT). The use of tethers and solar sails to further improve effectiveness and simplify operations is investigated. By employing a tether, the asteroida...

The recently discovered asteroid 2013 LX28 is in 1:1 resonance with Earth, but has large eccentricity and inclination. These lead to unusual dynamics in which the Kozai resonance plays a large role on long time-scales, while interaction with the terrestrial planets causes shorter term orbital changes. For the nominal orbit, an interaction with Venus changed the nature of the Kozai resonance and...

...........................................................................................................4 1. Short description of Rosetta as an instance of GUARDS...............................4 2. Modelling Approach for the Rosetta mission ................................................5 3. Level 0: Measures......................................................................................