
Article Title
SmallSat swarm gravimetry: Revealing the interior structure of asteroids and comets
Keywords
gravimetry, asteroid exploration, astrodynamics, stochastic optimization
Abstract
A growing interest in small body exploration has motivated research into the rapid characterization of near-Earth objects to meet economic or scientific objectives. Specifically, knowledge of the internal density structure can aid with target selection and enables an understanding of prehistoric planetary formation to be developed. To this end, multi-layer extensions to the polyhedral gravity model are suggested, and an inversion technique is implemented to present their effectiveness. On-orbit gravity gradiometry is simulated and employed in stochastic and deterministic algorithms, with results that imply robustness in both cases.
Recommended Citation
Ledbetter, William Gordon; Sood, Rohan; Keane, James; and Stuart, Jeffrey
(2021)
"SmallSat swarm gravimetry: Revealing the interior structure of asteroids and comets,"
Astrodynamics: Vol. 5:
Iss.
3, Article 2.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42064-020-0098-1
Available at:
https://dc.tsinghuajournals.com/astrodynamics/vol5/iss3/2