Searching for Orbits for a Mission to the Asteroid 2001SN₂₆₃ Considering Errors in the Physical Parameters

Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to search for orbits that can be used in the Brazilian proposed Aster mission. This mission is under study and its objective is to use a spacecraft to observe the system 2001SN263, which is a triple asteroid system. With respect to the two-body problem (spacecraft and the main asteroid), the symmetries of the orbits are broken by the oblateness of the main body of the system, the solar radiation pressure, and the gravitational attraction of the two moons of the main body. Additionally, the masses of these two moons have errors associated with their predicted values, which reinforce the asymmetry and require extra effort to maintain the observational objectives of the mission. The idea is to find orbits that remain for some time observing the three bodies of that system, even if the physical parameters of the bodies are not the ones expected from observations made from the Earth. This is accomplished by studying the effects of errors in all the physical properties of the three asteroids in the trajectories described by a spacecraft that is orbiting this system. Several important and useful trajectories are found, which are the ones that can observe the desired bodies, even if the physical parameters are not the expected ones. To express our results, we built time histories of the relative distances between each of the asteroids and the spacecraft. They are used to select the trajectories according to the amount of time that we need to observe each body of the system. In this way, the first objective of this research is to search for trajectories to keep the spacecraft close to the three bodies of the system as long as possible, without requiring orbital maneuvers. The errors for the masses of the two smaller and lesser known bodies are taken into consideration, while the mass of the most massive one is assumed to be known, because it was determined with higher precision by observations.

Keywords

• astrodynamics
• asteroid 2001SN263
• errors in the physical parameters
• observational mission
• Aster mission