Reported in this paper are the results of a mission analysis conducted for an asteroid exploration mission. Following the results obtained from HAYABUSA, a Japanese asteroid explorer, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has started studying the possibility of the next asteroid exploration mission. The mission studied gives priority to the “early” retrieval of a sample from an asteroid with a...

The Chelyabinsk asteroid impact is the second largest asteroid airburst in our recorded history. To prepare for a potential threat from asteroid impacts, it is important to understand the nature and formational history of Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) like Chelyabinsk asteroid. In orbital evolution of an asteroid, collision with other asteroids is a key process. Here, we show the existence of a hig...

The morphology of asteroid bodies in equine arteries is demonstrated by light microscopy as well as by scanning and transmission electron microscopy combined with chemical analysis. Asteroid bodies first occur in horses at four weeks of age in all investigated tissues except the esophagus and always are located in the subendothelial space. The number, shape, ultrastructure and chemical composit...

It has been suggested that asteroids between ~100 m and ~100 km in size may be gravitational aggregates of loosely consolidated material. Recently evidence has been mounting to support this idea. Comet breakups, crater chains, doublet craters, giant craters, grooves, asteroid spins, underdense asteroids, asteroid satellites, and unusual asteroid shapes can all be explained to some degree by the...

Introduction: The Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) of Japan has launched the engineering test spacecraft \HAYABUSA" (formerly called \MUSES-C") to the near Earth asteroid \ITOKAWA (1998SF36)" on May 9, 2003 [1]. HAYABUSA will go to the target asteroid after two years' interplanetary cruise and will descend onto the asteroid surface in 2005 to acquire some fragments, which wil...

National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) aims to capture a Near Earth Orbit (NEO) asteroid or a piece of a large asteroid and transport it to the Earth–Moon system. In this paper, we provide a detailed analysis of one of the main control challenges for the first ARM mission concept, namely despinning and three-axis stabilizing the asteroid and spacecraft c...

There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from it. Near Earth asteroids represent a wealth of material resources to support future space ventures. These resources include water from C-type asteroids for crew logistic support; liquid propellants electrolytically cracked from water to fuel crewed...

Asteroid families are the byproducts of catastrophic collisions whose fragments form clusters in proper semimajor axis, eccentricity, and inclination space. Although many families have been observed in the main asteroid belt, only two very young families, Karin and Veritas, have well-determined ages. The ages of other families are needed, however, if we hope to infer information about their eje...

The asteroid belt helps us in reconstructing the origin and the evolution of the solar system, probably better than the planets themselves. This is because the asteroid belt provides several key constraints that can be used to effectively guide the development, calibration, and validation of evolutionary models. Compared to other small-body populations, such as the Kuiper belt or Oort cloud, th...

A new method of capturing an asteroid in an orbit around the Earth is proposed, inspired by the theory that the irregular satellites of Jupiter and Neptune may have at one time been members of a binary asteroid. After a close approach with the planet, the binary asteroid was disrupted, and one member was captured into a permanent orbit. A parametric study was conducted by simulating binary-Eart...