Investigating Asteroid Surface Geophysics with an Ultra-Low-Gravity Centrifuge in Low-Earth Orbit

TL;DR

This paper proposes a CubeSat-based centrifuge in Low-Earth Orbit to simulate asteroid surface gravity and study regolith behavior, aiding future asteroid landing and exploration missions.

Contribution

It introduces the AOSAT+ CubeSat design that recreates asteroid surface conditions in orbit, enabling direct study of regolith physics in low-gravity environments.

Findings

Design of a spinning CubeSat centrifuge for asteroid surface simulation

Use of meteorite-based regolith in a microgravity environment

Framework for numerical simulation of regolith behavior in low gravity

Abstract

Near-Earth small-body mission targets 162173 Ryugu, 101955 Bennu, and 25143 Itokawa produce gravity fields around 4 orders of magnitude below that of Earth and their irregular shapes, combined with rotational effects produce varying surface potentials. Still, we observe familiar geologic textures and landforms that are the result of the granular physical processes that take place on their surfaces. The nature of these landforms, however, their origins, and how these surfaces react to interrogation by probes, landers, rovers, and penetrators, remain largely unknown, and therefore landing on an asteroid and manipulating its surface material remains a daunting challenge. The AOSAT+ design is a 12U CubeSat that will be in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) and that will operate as a spinning on-orbit centrifuge. Part of this 12U CubeSat will contain a laboratory that will recreate asteroid surface conditions using crushed meteorite as a regolith proxy. The spinning of the laboratory will simulate the surface gravity of asteroids 2 km and smaller. The result is a bed of realistic regolith, the environment that landers and diggers and maybe astronauts will interact with. A crucial component of this mission involves the reproduction of the experimental results in numerical simulation in order to extract the material parameters of the regolith and its behavior in a sustained, very low but nonzero-gravity environment.