Determination of Optimal Trajectories for the Space Mission to Near-Earth Asteroid with Using Low Thrust Engine.
Abstract:
Optimal trajectories of the spacecraft from the Earth to near-Earth asteroid are under consideration in the paper. The aim of the spaceflight is the spacecraft's impact influence upon the asteroid to prevent a collision of the Earth and this asteroid. It is supposed that high thrust engine is used for geocentric part of the trajectory and low thrust engine is used for heliocentric part. The initial mass of the spacecraft on a circular orbit near the Earth is supposed to be given. Three criteria of the trajectory optimization are considered. The first is terminal spacecraft mass, the second is the terminal spacecraft momentum relative to the asteroid, and the third is the asteroid deviation from the Earth on the Earth aim plane after the spacecraft-asteroid impact happened. There are three models of the spacecraft motion considered. These are the model of the motion in non-gravitation space, the model of the motion in the linearized gravitation field and the model with exact statement of the problem. The approximate models are investigated using transporting coordinate system which is connected with the spacecraft on the Kepler basis trajectory. The numerical results are given for the flight to the asteroid Toutatis.
