Roid Rage Within the Envelope
May 8, 2025
Demyan Lantuk, a Senior Mission Operations Engineer at AstroForge, shares his expertise in the intricacies of asteroid mining missions. He discusses the real-world challenges of launch schedules and the need for precise trajectory calculations. The conversation delves into the complexities of spacecraft design, financial hurdles in data management, and the humorous side of working with evolving software. With a blend of technical insights and light-hearted banter, Demyan paints a vivid picture of the future of space exploration and innovation.
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Demyan's Career Path
- Demyan chose asteroid mining work for the excitement of deep space missions over traditional long NASA cycles.
- His background in orbital mechanics shaped his startup career focused on innovative spacecraft projects.
Mission Design Fundamentals
- Mission design balances objectives and spacecraft limits to optimize trajectory and timing.
- It mainly focuses on how to get the spacecraft to the right place at the right time with constraints like fuel and mass.
Designing for Multiple Targets
- Unlike fixed-target missions, asteroid mining designs must accommodate a range of potential destinations.
- Designing around a bounding box of possible targets shapes spacecraft capabilities and trajectories differently.
