Roid Rage Bang-Bang To An Asteroid
Aug 21, 2025
Join a flight dynamics engineer as they decode the intricate math behind getting spacecraft to asteroids without a hitch. Discover the challenges of low-thrust trajectory planning and the humorous reality of making educated guesses on complex missions. Learn about the significance of SPICE files in orbit definitions and hear engaging anecdotes that highlight the blend of creativity and technical precision in space exploration. Listen in as the hosts answer quirky listener questions, mixing humor with serious insights into aerospace engineering.
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Thrust Timing Is Orbital Design
- Orbital design is choosing when and how much to thrust to reach a future location in space.
- Low-thrust trajectories need thousands of optimized burn points, making them orders of magnitude harder than single-burn solutions.
Low-Thrust Planning Mirrors High-Thrust First
- Low-thrust missions are generally more complex and less efficient than high-thrust ones for planning.
- Engineers often compute a high-thrust solution first and subdivide it into many low-thrust burn segments to approximate it.
Filter Targets By Reachability Early
- Start by filtering asteroids by reachable envelope relative to Earth and Sun to limit candidates.
- Discard targets whose relative velocity requires more propellant than the spacecraft has available.