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van Nistelrooij, Maarten (author)Small solar system bodies have received increasing scientific attention over the past decades. Studying their primitive origins can reveal important insights on the formation of planets, as well as the general evolution of the Solar System. Also their potential threat to life on Earth upon collision and their potential to act as stepping stones...master thesis 2023
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Verwer, Steven (author)The thesis explores designing an attitude and orbital control system for an autonomous 6U CubeSat near-Earth asteroid fly-by mission, aiming to conceptualize an off-the-shelf solution. It addresses selecting propulsion systems for interplanetary travel, reaction wheel desaturation, and attitude control during the mission.<br/><br/>Through a fuel...master thesis 2023
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Elffers, Peter (author)This paper investigates the performance of an autonomous navigation system to navigate a spacecraft in the proximity of a binary asteroid system using optical and laser ranging measurements. The knowledge about the binary asteroid is limited to its orbital parameters and ellipsoid shape models. The accelerometer bias random walk is included in...master thesis 2023
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De Ridder, J. (author), Ripepi, V. (author), Aerts, C. (author), Palaversa, L. (author), Eyer, L. (author), Holl, B. (author), Audard, M. (author), Rimoldini, L. (author), Hladczuk, N.A. (author)Context. The Gaia mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) has been routinely observing Solar System objects (SSOs) since the beginning of its operations in August 2014. The Gaia data release three (DR3) includes, for the first time, the mean reflectance spectra of a selected sample of 60 518 SSOs, primarily asteroids, observed between August...journal article 2023
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Fiuk, Aleksander (author)Operating spacecraft in a perturbed environment of a binary asteroid system is a challenging task. In light of the near-future exploration of the 65803 Didymos system by the Hera probe and the lack of study of orbital evolution of naturally-levitated regolith particles in this system, a method is here proposed to identify regions of high risk of...master thesis 2022
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Buckley, Cian (author)This paper investigates the use of solar sailing propulsion to visit as many co-orbital near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) as possible, within a fixed time-frame. This research builds on previous publications, which have shown solar sailing to be a suitable propulsion method to visit NEAs. The dynamics of this problem are modelled within the Solar Sail...master thesis 2022
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de Francisco Carballo, Jorge (author)Standardization is becoming more commonplace in space missions, aiming to increase reliability and drive down costs. Due to the relative similarities in operating environment between Small Solar System Bodies (SSSBs), a highly-adaptable lander may be able to service a majority of SSSBs with minor adaptations. The model-based systems engineering ...master thesis 2022
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van Oorschot, Marijn (author)Spacecraft navigation and control is difficult in deep space operations. Especially around asteroids, the irregular gravity field increases the difficulty of estimating the spacecraft trajectory. Autonomous navigation can increase the safety and accuracy for orbit proximity operations. Furthermore, it eliminates the need for continuous...master thesis 2022
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Vermeulen, Arjan (author)For several decades, humanity has worked on cataloguing the population of near-Earth asteroids (NEA's). Knowledge of these small members of the Solar system not only helps in defending Earth from asteroid impacts; study of the population might also provide valuable scientific insights, and open economic possibilities through developments such as...master thesis 2022
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van der Heijden, Lars (author)Missions to small bodies are increasingly gaining interest as they might hold the secrets to our solar system’s origin while some are also posing a threat to life on Earth. The small size and irregular shape result in complex dynamics complicating the close-proximity operations. Furthermore, due to the long round-trip time communication delays...master thesis 2022
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Heiligers, M.J. (author), Guo, J. (author), Vermeulen, J.G.P. (author)Through numerous survey efforts over the past decades, humanity has achieved substantial knowledge of the near-Earth asteroid (NEA) population. Nevertheless, survey completeness at small asteroid sizes is still limited, and unannounced impacts, such as the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor, are common enough to warrant further identification efforts....conference paper 2022
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Torrente, Paul (author)This thesis focused on the relevance and feasibility of an uncontrolled cubesat mission in a binary asteroid environment, highlighting the example of the representative Near-Earth Asteroid 1999 KW4, modelled using the TU Delft Astrodynamics Tool (TUDAT). A clear distinction was made between orbits of the cubesat starting in the interior and the...master thesis 2021
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Paricio Ezquerra, Daniel (author)Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) have attracted the attention of the scientific community in the last few years. Not only because of their importance to life on Earth but also their scientific potential and possible economic returns. This work explores the use of quasi-periodic orbits to bound the motion of NEAs close to the Earth’s vicinity for...master thesis 2021
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Reichert, Jules (author)Asteroids and comets are thought to be the primordial remnants of our early Solar System, their interior structure and composition providing a snapshot of this turbulent era of planet formation. Thus far, everything we know of the internals of these small Solar System bodies has been inferred from surface observations and meteorite mineralogy....master thesis 2021
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Casini, S. (author), Fodde, Iosto (author), Monna, Bert (author), Cervone, A. (author), Gill, E.K.A. (author)The purpose of this work is to present a novel CubeSat architecture, aimed to explore Near Earth Asteroids. The fast growth in small satellite commercial-off-the-shelf technologies, which characterized the last decade of space industry, is exploited to design a 3U CubeSat able to provide a basic scientific return sufficient to improve the...journal article 2021
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Jordanov, Viktor (author)The idea of capturing an asteroid has gained more and more attention in recent years, sparked by rapid technological development and the growing general interest into the subject, both by scientists and commercial parties. The focus of this thesis project lies on transferring a near-Earth asteroid (NEA) from its original orbit to a safe, stable...master thesis 2020
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Chambe, Marie (author)This thesis work has been motivated by the growing interest in small-spacecraft small-body missions and more specifically inspired by a proposed mission to the largest Martian Trojan (5261) Eureka. This binary asteroid represents a promising target for a planetary mission, as a better understanding of its formation and evolution would provide...master thesis 2020
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Villegas Pinto, Daniel (author)In the framework of JAXA’s Hayabusa2 mission, we study the dynamical environment around asteroid Ryugu to investigate whether ejecta particles can be temporarily trapped in periodic orbits following the Small Carry-on Impactor (SCI) operation. If these particles remain about the asteroid, they could potentially jeopardize the mission as, in the...master thesis 2019
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Hazra, Shriya (author)With the onset of the age of space travel, asteroid missions have been steadily gaining interest. The pristine nature of asteroids due to their preserved state since the formation of the Solar System is an opportunity to unravel many mysteries about the Solar System. Also with the ever-growing need for resources, asteroids prove to be a...master thesis 2019
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Grundmann, Jan Thimo (author), Bauer, Waldemar (author), Boden, Ralf (author), Ceriotti, Matteo (author), Chand, Suditi (author), Heiligers, M.J. (author), Vergaaij, Merel (author), Viavattene, Giulia (author), Wolff, Friederike (author)The exploration of small solar system bodies started with fast fly-bys of opportunity on the sidelines of missions to the planets. The tiny new worlds seen turned out to be so intriguing and different from all else (and each other) that dedicated sample-return and in-situ analysis missions were developed and launched. Through these, highly...journal article 2019