Towards End-To-End Design of Spacecraft Swarms for Small-Body Reconnaissance. (arXiv:1910.03828v1 [astro-ph.IM])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Nallapu_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">Ravi Teja Nallapu</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Thangavelautham_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">Jekan Thangavelautham</a>
The exploration of small bodies in the Solar System is a high priority
planetary science. Asteroids, comets, and planetary moons yield important
information about the evolution of the Solar System. Additionally, they could
provide resources for a future space economy. While much research has gone into
exploring asteroids and comets, dedicated spacecraft missions to planetary
moons are few and far between. There are three fundamental challenges of a
spacecraft mission to the planetary moons: The first challenge is that the
spheres of influence of most moons (except that of Earth) are small and, in
many cases, virtually absent. The second is that many moons are tidally locked
to their planets, which means that an observer on the planet will have an
entire hemisphere, which is always inaccessible. The third challenge is that at
a given time about half of the region will be in the Sun’s shadow. Therefore, a
single spacecraft mission to observe the planetary moon cannot provide complete
coverage. Such a complex task can be solved using a swarm approach, where the
mapping task is delegated to multiple low-cost spacecraft. Clearly, the design
of a swarm mission for such a dynamic environment is challenging. For this
reason, we have proposed the Integrated Design Engineering & Automation of
Swarms (IDEAS) software to perform automated end-to-end design of swarm
missions. Specifically, it will use a sub-module known as the Automated Swarm
Designer module to find optimal swarm configurations suited for a given
mission. In our previous work, we have developed the Automated Swarm Design
module to find swarm configurations for asteroid mapping operations. In this
work, we will evaluate the capability of the Automated Swarm module to design
missions to planetary moons.
The exploration of small bodies in the Solar System is a high priority
planetary science. Asteroids, comets, and planetary moons yield important
information about the evolution of the Solar System. Additionally, they could
provide resources for a future space economy. While much research has gone into
exploring asteroids and comets, dedicated spacecraft missions to planetary
moons are few and far between. There are three fundamental challenges of a
spacecraft mission to the planetary moons: The first challenge is that the
spheres of influence of most moons (except that of Earth) are small and, in
many cases, virtually absent. The second is that many moons are tidally locked
to their planets, which means that an observer on the planet will have an
entire hemisphere, which is always inaccessible. The third challenge is that at
a given time about half of the region will be in the Sun’s shadow. Therefore, a
single spacecraft mission to observe the planetary moon cannot provide complete
coverage. Such a complex task can be solved using a swarm approach, where the
mapping task is delegated to multiple low-cost spacecraft. Clearly, the design
of a swarm mission for such a dynamic environment is challenging. For this
reason, we have proposed the Integrated Design Engineering & Automation of
Swarms (IDEAS) software to perform automated end-to-end design of swarm
missions. Specifically, it will use a sub-module known as the Automated Swarm
Designer module to find optimal swarm configurations suited for a given
mission. In our previous work, we have developed the Automated Swarm Design
module to find swarm configurations for asteroid mapping operations. In this
work, we will evaluate the capability of the Automated Swarm module to design
missions to planetary moons.
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