KECK INSTITUTE FOR SPACE STUDIES

       

Asteroid Retrieval Mission Study - Part II

February 7-8, 2012
California Institute of Technology - Pasadena, CA 91125

Final Report

Workshop Overview:

Read the Wired Science article about the opening workshop and the mention in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

An Asteroid Retrieval Mission Study was conducted to investigate the feasibility of finding, characterizing, robotically capturing, and returning an entire Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) to the vicinity of the Earth for scientific investigation, evaluation of its resource potential, determination of its internal structure and other aspects important for planetary defense activities, and to serve as a possible testbed for human operations at an asteroid. The study team evaluated different mission concepts and destinations for the Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) including the Lagrange points (Earth-Moon L1/L2/L4/L5 or Sun-Earth L2) as well as other Earth orbits. The asteroid will be 2-5 meter in diameter.

Moving an asteroid is a huge idea – never has a celestial object been moved by humans. It is a huge idea, but not an impossible one. A recent study at JPL has already shown possible feasibility to move a small asteroid, with a mass of ~10,000 kg, deep into the Earth's gravity well – even to the orbit of the International Space Station.

The study considered technology requirements for a potential asteroid retrieval in the following areas:

  • Astrodynamics: both low-thrust trajectory optimization and low-energy transfers (exploiting the so-called Space Manifold Dynamics)
  • Robotics: capturing and moving a large object - this has applications to orbit debris and even spent satellite removal in Earth orbit
  • Discovery and observation of smaller Near-Earth Asteroids
  • Human and robotic mission design, including the synergy between them:  If the small NEA will be moved to a Lagrange point, stepping stones for human exploration into the solar system can be literally created: in case the asteroid destination is the Sun-Earth L2, then a subsequent human mission to the asteroid at this location could be the first crewed mission to deep space
  • Planetary defense:  developing technologies that can mitigate the threat of a putative Near-Earth Object being discovered on a likely impact trajectory toward Earth
  • Characterization and utilization of asteroid resources.

Workshop Participants:

  • David C Baughman - Naval Postgraduate School
  • Julie Bellerose - Carnegie Mellon University
  • John R Brophy - JPL
  • Michael W Busch - UC Los Angeles (UCLA)
  • John Casani - JPL
  • Marcello Coradini - European Space Agency - (ESA)
  • John Dankanich - Gray Research
  • Martin Elvis - Harvard-Smithsonian CfA (Center for Astrophysics)
  • Louis Friedman - The Planetary Society
  • Bob Gershman - JPL
  • Tom D Jones - Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition
  • Damon Landau - JPL
  • Chris Lewicki - Arkyd Astronautics, Inc.
  • John S. Lewis - University of Arizona
  • Pedro Llanos - University of Southern California/JPL
  • Mark Lupisella - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
  • Dan Mazanek - NASA Langley Research Center
  • Joe A Nuth - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
  • Guru Singh - JPL
  • Nathan J Strange - NASA/JPL
  • Marco Tantardini - The Planetary Society
  • Brian H. Wilcox - JPL
  • Don Yeomans - JPL

Workshop Presentations

John Brophy

Second workshop agenda and objectives
(147 KB .pdf)

Don Yeomans,
John Lewis

Group report on final report sections - Review of main results and conclusions
(268 KB .pdf)

Dan Mazanek

Preliminary Investigation of Human Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) Mission Synergy with an Asteroid Retrieval Mission Concept Utilizing a 40 kW‐class Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) System
(663 KB .pdf)

Brian Wilcox

Capturing Asteroidal Material
(603 KB .pdf)

Marcello Coradini

ESA NEO
(541 KB .pdf)