Mission design of DESTINY+: toward active asteroid (3200) Phaethon and multiple small bodies

Ozaki, N. et al. (2022) Mission design of DESTINY+: toward active asteroid (3200) Phaethon and multiple small bodies. Acta Astronautica, 196, pp. 42-56. (doi: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2022.03.029)

Abstract

DESTINY+ is an upcoming JAXA Epsilon medium-class mission to fly by the Geminids meteor shower parent body (3200) Phaethon. It will be the world’s first spacecraft to escape from a near-geostationary transfer orbit into deep space using a low-thrust propulsion system. In doing so, DESTINY+ will demonstrate a number of technologies that include a highly efficient ion engine system, lightweight solar array panels, and advanced asteroid flyby observation instruments. These demonstrations will pave the way for JAXA’s envisioned low-cost, high-frequency space exploration plans. Following the Phaethon flyby observation, DESTINY+ will visit additional asteroids as its extended mission. The mission design is divided into three phases: a spiral-shaped apogee-raising phase, a multi-lunar-flyby phase to escape Earth, and an interplanetary and asteroids flyby phase. The main challenges include the optimization of the many-revolution low-thrust spiral phase under operational constraints; the design of a multi-lunar-flyby sequence in a multi-body environment; and the design of multiple asteroid flybys connected via Earth gravity assists. This paper shows a novel, practical approach to tackle these complex problems, and presents feasible solutions found within the mass budget and mission constraints. Among them, the baseline solution is shown and discussed in depth; DESTINY+ will spend two years raising its apogee with ion engines, followed by four lunar gravity assists, and a flyby of asteroids (3200) Phaethon and (155140) 2005 UD. Finally, the flight operations plan for the spiral phase and the asteroid flyby phase are presented in detail.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Celik, Dr Onur
• Authors: Ozaki, N., Yamamoto, T., Gonzalez-Franquesa, F., Gutierrez-Ramon, R., Pushparaj, N., Chikazawa, T., Tos, D. A. D., Çelik, O., Marmo, N., Kawakatsu, Y., Arai, T., Nishiyama, K., and Takashima, T.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Systems Power and Energy
• Journal Name: Acta Astronautica
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0094-5765
• ISSN (Online): 1879-2030
• Published Online: 01 April 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 IAA
• First Published: First published in Acta Astronautica 196: 42-56
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy