Target selection for a small low-thrust mission to near-Earth asteroids
Alessio Mereta, Dario Izzo

TL;DR
This paper examines how different trajectory models impact the selection of asteroid targets for low-thrust spacecraft missions, highlighting the importance of accurate modeling for optimal target ranking.
Contribution
It analyzes the sensitivity of asteroid target rankings to various trajectory models, emphasizing the significance of low-thrust dynamics in mission planning.
Findings
Low-thrust trajectory models significantly influence target ranking decisions.
Chemical propulsion surrogates can mislead target selection in 19% of cases.
Including Earth's gravity has minimal impact on target ranking for the studied CubeSat.
Abstract
The preliminary mission design of spacecraft missions to asteroids often involves, in the early phases, the selection of candidate target asteroids. The final result of such an analysis is a list of asteroids, ranked with respect to the necessary propellant to be used, that the spacecraft could potentially reach. In this paper we investigate the sensitivity of the produced asteroids rank to the employed trajectory model in the specific case of a small low-thrust propelled spacecraft beginning its journey from the Sun-Earth Lagrangian point and heading to a rendezvous with some near-Earth asteroid. We consider five increasingly complex trajectory models: impulsive, Lambert, nuclear electric propulsion, nuclear electric propulsion including the Earth's gravity, solar electric propulsion including the Earth's gravity and we study the final correlation between the obtained target…
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