The capture of small near-Earth asteroids in a bound binary pair in Earth’s orbit

Algethami, A. R., McInnes, C. R. and Ceriotti, M. (2024) The capture of small near-Earth asteroids in a bound binary pair in Earth’s orbit. Acta Astronautica, 214, pp. 545-552. (doi: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2023.11.006)

Abstract

Hill's approximation models the motion of two small masses gravitationally interacting with each other and perturbed by a large central body. An application of the model is employed in this paper to manoeuvre the relative motion of two asteroids by a small impulse to capture them in bound binary motion in Earth's orbit. The initial conditions prior to the capture manoeuvre are restricted in a parameter space termed the gateway region. The gateway region is produced by applying the constraint that the capture impulse is a real-valued function, and the zero-velocity curve closes, enveloping both asteroids. A full mission scenario is designed with three impulses. The first impulse transfers one asteroid from a far field region to the gateway region, where there is mutual interaction with the second asteroid, which is assumed to be the origin of the relative motion. The second impulse changes the trajectory of the asteroid in the gateway region to a linear drift approaching the second asteroid. The third impulse is calculated by means of increasing the Jacobi integral to reach the critical value required to close the zero-velocity curve. It is demonstrated in principle that the triple impulses enable the candidate asteroids to be captured in a bound pair in Earth's orbit. It is also shown that the thruster on-time for the capture impulse as applied for the different small asteroids considered is short relative to the natural time-scale of the orbital dynamics of the problem, which shows the feasibility of the impulse approximation with the typical thruster forces applied. This strategy could provide a basis for parking small captured near-Earth asteroids in Earth's orbit.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Amirah R. Algethami was supported by a scholarship from King Abdul-Aziz University, Deanship of Scientific Research in Saudi Arabia. Colin R. McInnes was supported by a Royal Academy of Engineering in the United Kingdom through the Chairs in Emerging Technologies scheme.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Ceriotti, Dr Matteo and McInnes, Professor Colin and Algethami, Amirah
• Authors: Algethami, A. R., McInnes, C. R., and Ceriotti, M.
• 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: 11 November 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Acta Astronautica 214:545-552
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
306654		Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies	Colin McInnes	Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE)	CIET1819\TUA\15	ENG - Systems Power & Energy