Planetary Defense Mission Design Using an Asteroid Mission Design Software Tool (AMiDST)

摘要

Tracking the orbit of asteroids and planning for asteroid missions have ceased to be a simple exercise, and become more of a necessity, as the number of identified potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroids increases. Several software tools such as Mystic, MALTO, Copernicus, SNAP, OTIS, and GMAT have been developed by NASA for spacecraft trajectory optimization and mission design. However, this paper further expands upon the development and validation of an Asteroid Mission Design Software Tool (AMiDST), through the use of approach and post-encounter orbital variations and analytic keyhole theory. Combining these new capabilities with that of a high-precision orbit propagator, this paper describes fictional mission design examples of using AMiDST as applied to comet 2013 A1 and a fictitious asteroid 2013 PDC-E. During the 2013 Planetary Defense Conference, the asteroid 2013 PDC-E was used for an exercise where participants simulated the decision-making process for developing deflection and civil defense responses to a hypothetical asteroid threat.