Trajectory Design and System Feasibility Analysis for Jovian Trojan Asteroid Exploration Mission Using Solar Power Sail.

The solar power sail is a deep space probe that will be powered by a hybrid propulsion system with solar photon acceleration and ion engines to explore the outer planetary regions of the Solar System without having to rely on nuclear power. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the world's first solar sail demonstration spacecraft, “IKAROS” (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun), in 2010. This spacecraft successfully demonstrated several key technologies related to the use of a solar power sail in a deep space flight environment. JAXA is currently planning an outer Solar System exploration mission using the demonstrated solar power sail technology, where the spacecraft will fly to Jupiter and perform a swing-by for a Jovian Trojan asteroid. This study undertook a trajectory design and system feasibility analysis for this mission. Candidate target asteroids were selected based on ballistic trajectory analysis, and then, electric-propulsion, continuous-thrust trajectory design was conducted to verify the conditions assumed for the ballistic analysis (e.g., estimate of steering loss due to the low-thrust trajectory). It was found that out of over 4000 Trojan asteroids, only 7 are feasible candidates considering the preliminary system design results. To broaden the choice of target asteroids, it will be necessary to reduce the weight of the solar power sail itself, its deployment mechanism, and the bus electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]