AAS 98-182

PLANNING A FASTER, CHEAPER ASTEROID MISSION

A. S. Hope - Naval Research Laboratory

Abstract

Future space missions are being planned to satisfy the faster, cheaper and better philosophy. This paper is a how-to-guide for planning an asteroid mission which requires low energy (cheaper) and returns a maximum amount of science (better). Short term planning and execution of a mission is crucial to satisfy the cheaper aspect of a mission. Mission design methodology for constructing a low cost multiple asteroid flyby mission is given and example missions are presented.

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