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Owen, W. M.

Publications and source records attributed to Owen, W. M..

13 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2000

Orbit Operations at 433 Eros: Navigation for the NEAR Shoemaker Mission

NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Mission began its record-setting exploration of the asteroid 433 Eros by inserting the spacecraft into orbit about Eros on February 14, 2000. This is the first spacecraft from any country to orbit an asteroid. The mission has overcome a failed insertion burn attempt on December 20, 1998, an event that would have ended most planetary missions, to return to the same target and successfully begin its science mapping a little more than a year later. Shortly after the successful insertion into orbit, the mission was renamed NEAR Shoemaker (NEAR) in memory of the late astronomer and geologist Eugene Shoemaker. NEAR will gather science data at Eros until February 14, 2001, which is the nominal end of mission. The NEAR mission is managed by the Johns Hopkins University, Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. Since the initial mission concept in 1992, the design and implementation of the NEAR navigation system have been the responsibility of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. This presentation will show some of the unique features of navigation and mission design related to orbiting an asteroid and to designing a robust navigation system for the NEAR spacecraft. The problem of navigating a spacecraft about an asteroid is made difficult by the relative uncertainty in the asteroid physical properties which perturb the orbit: i.e., the mass, gravity field, and spin state. To help solve this problem, the navigation system for NEAR uses traditional DSN radio metric Doppler and range tracking, along with new technologies of optical landmark tracking and laser ranging to the asteroid surface. The experiences to date for each of these data types in the navigation solutions will be presented. Plans for the remainder of the NEAR mission will be presented, which include low orbits (down to 35 km radius circular orbits), and close flybys that may pass within 1 km of the surface. In addition, at the end of mission, NASA has approved a controlled descent and hovering phase that will culminate with the spacecraft impacting the surface. The maneuver planning for this final phase will also be presented.

Williams, B. G.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Preliminary Planning for NEAR's Low-Altitude Operations at 433 Eros

On February 14, 2000, an orbit insertion burn will place NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft (S/C) into orbit around asteroid 433 Eros. NEAR will initially orbit Eros with distances ranging from 500 to 100 km in order to characterize the shape, gravity and spin of Eros. Once the physical parameters of Eros are determined reasonably well, the plan is to establish an orbit of the NEAR S/C with increasingly lower altitudes as the one year orbital mission progresses while further characterizing the gravity and shape of Eros. Towards the end of the NEAR mission, after the shape, gravity and spin of Eros have been well characterized, the scientific interest of obtaining very close observations (< 5 km) can be realized. The navigation during this phase relies on a combination of NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN) radio metric tracking, laser ranging (LIDAR) data from the S/C to the surface of Eros, and onboard optical imaging of landmarks on Eros. This paper will provide preliminary plans for mission design and navigation during the last two months of the orbit phase, where several close passes to the surface will be incorporated to enhance the science return. The culmination of these close passes will result in the eventual landing of the S/C on the surface of Eros. Several considerations for these plans are given by Antreasian, et at. [1998]. The objective for the end of the mission will be to land the S/C autonomously using the surface relative information obtained from the onboard LIDAR instrument. The goal will be to soft land the S/C in such a way as to keep it operational. With the use of an onboard LIDAR landing algorithm as discussed by Antreasian et at. [1998], it is believed that the S/C impact velocity can be kept well under 7 m/s which is a requirement for allowing the S/C to remain operational.

Antreasian, P. G.↗
NASA NTRS1998

High-Accuracy Asteroid Astrometry from Table Mountain Observatory

We have installed a large-format CCD camera on the 0.6 meter telescope at JPL's Table Mountain Observatory and used it to obtain high-accuracy astrometric obserations of asteroids and other solar system targets of interest.

astrometry asteroids CCD reduction techniques↗
NASA NTRS1995

Determination of Eros Physical Parameters for Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Orbit Phase Navigation

Navigation of the orbit phase of the Near Earth steroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission will re,quire determination of certain physical parameters describing the size, shape, gravity field, attitude and inertial properties of Eros. Prior to launch, little was known about Eros except for its orbit which could be determined with high precision from ground based telescope observations. Radar bounce and light curve data provided a rough estimate of Eros shape and a fairly good estimate of the pole, prime meridian and spin rate. However, the determination of the NEAR spacecraft orbit requires a high precision model of Eros's physical parameters and the ground based data provides only marginal a priori information. Eros is the principal source of perturbations of the spacecraft's trajectory and the principal source of data for determining the orbit. The initial orbit determination strategy is therefore concerned with developing a precise model of Eros. The original plan for Eros orbital operations was to execute a series of rendezvous burns beginning on December 20,1998 and insert into a close Eros orbit in January 1999. As a result of an unplanned termination of the rendezvous burn on December 20, 1998, the NEAR spacecraft continued on its high velocity approach trajectory and passed within 3900 km of Eros on December 23, 1998. The planned rendezvous burn was delayed until January 3, 1999 which resulted in the spacecraft being placed on a trajectory that slowly returns to Eros with a subsequent delay of close Eros orbital operations until February 2001. The flyby of Eros provided a brief glimpse and allowed for a crude estimate of the pole, prime meridian and mass of Eros. More importantly for navigation, orbit determination software was executed in the landmark tracking mode to determine the spacecraft orbit and a preliminary shape and landmark data base has been obtained. The flyby also provided an opportunity to test orbit determination operational procedures that will be used in February of 2001. The initial attitude and spin rate of Eros, as well as estimates of reference landmark locations, are obtained from images of the asteroid. These initial estimates are used as a priori values for a more precise refinement of these parameters by the orbit determination software which combines optical measurements with Doppler tracking data to obtain solutions for the required parameters. As the spacecraft is maneuvered; closer to the asteroid, estimates of spacecraft state, asteroid attitude, solar pressure, landmark locations and Eros physical parameters including mass, moments of inertia and gravity harmonics are determined with increasing precision. The determination of the elements of the inertia tensor of the asteroid is critical to spacecraft orbit determination and prediction of the asteroid attitude. The moments of inertia about the principal axes are also of scientific interest since they provide some insight into the internal mass distribution. Determination of the principal axes moments of inertia will depend on observing free precession in the asteroid's attitude dynamics. Gravity harmonics are in themselves of interest to science. When compared with the asteroid shape, some insight may be obtained into Eros' internal structure. The location of the center of mass derived from the first degree harmonic coefficients give a direct indication of overall mass distribution. The second degree harmonic coefficients relate to the radial distribution of mass. Higher degree harmonics may be compared with surface features to gain additional insight into mass distribution. In this paper, estimates of Eros physical parameters obtained from the December 23,1998 flyby will be presented. This new knowledge will be applied to simplification of Eros orbital operations in February of 2001. The resulting revision to the orbit determination strategy will also be discussed.

Miller, J. K.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Ephemerides of the major Neptunian satellites determined from earth-based astrometric and Voyager imaging observations

The Voyager project used Neptunian satellite ephemerides to support both navigation and acquisition of scientific data. The development of postencounter ephemerides for the satellites Triton, Nereid, and 1989N1 is discussed. Primary results are the final set of model parameters which generate orbits that best fit both the earth-based satellite observations and data acquired by Voyager. The ephemerides are compared with those generated preencounter, and the accuracy of the final ephemerides is assessed. Mean orbital elements are also provided as a geometrical representation for the satellite orbits.

Jacobson, R. A.↗