Dawn Statistical Maneuver Design for Vesta Operations

Parcher, Daniel W.; Whiffen, Gregory J.

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NASA NTRS · 20120000675

Dawn Statistical Maneuver Design for Vesta Operations

Parcher, Daniel W.·Whiffen, Gregory J.

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Abstract

In July of 2011 the Dawn spacecraft is scheduled to begin orbital operations at Vesta, a large main-belt asteroid. Dawn is a NASA Discovery mission that uses solar-electric low-thrust ion propulsion for both interplanetary cruise and orbital operations. Navigating between the Dawn project's four targeted science orbits at Vesta requires a plan that accounts for uncertainties not only in thrust execution, orbit determination, and other spacecraft forces, but also large uncertainties in characteristics of Vesta - such as the asteroid's gravity field and pole orientation. Accommodating these uncertainties requires strategic use of low-thrust maneuvers reserved for statistical trajectory corrections. This paper describes the placement and evaluation of low-thrust statistical maneuvers during two key phases of the Vesta mission along with a discussion of the tools, constraints, and methods used to plan those maneuvers.

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Solar Electric Propulsion Orbit Transfer Ion Propulsion Maneuver Design Dawn

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Parcher, Daniel W., Whiffen, Gregory J.. 2011-02-13. Dawn Statistical Maneuver Design for Vesta Operations. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20120000675

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