Simulation of attitude and orbital disturbances acting on ASPECT satellite in the vicinity of the binary asteroid Didymos

Abstract

Asteroid missions are gaining interest from the scientific community and many new missions are planned. The Didymos binary asteroid is a Near-Earth Object and the target of the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA). This joint mission, developed by NASA and ESA, brings the possibility to build one of the first CubeSats for deep space missions: the ASPECT satellite. Navigation systems of a deep space satellite di er greatly from the common planetary missions. Orbital environment close to an asteroid requires a case-by-case analysis. In order to develop the Attitude Determination Control System (ADCS) for the mission, one needs detailed information about orbital disturbances in the vicinity of the asteroid.

This work focuses on the development of a simulator that characterizes the orbital disturbances a ecting the ASPECT satellite in the space environment near the Didymos asteroid. In this work, a model of orbital conditions and disturbances near the Didymos system was defined. The model integrates several classical and modern models of spacecraft motion and disturbance. An existing Low Earth Orbit (LEO) simulator was modified and updated accordingly to the ASPECT mission scenario. The developed simulator can be used to analyze the disturbances to be counteracted by the ADCS of the ASPECT satellite. The objective of the study was to quantify the e ect of both non-gravitational and gravitational disturbances. The simulator was used to analyze di erent orbit scenarios related to the period of the mission and to the relative distance between the spacecraft and the asteroid system. In every scenario, the solar radiation pressure was found to be the strongest of the disturbance forces. With the developed simulator, suitable spacecraft configurations and control systems can be chosen to mitigate the e ect of the disturbances on the attitude and orbit of the ASPECT satellite.