Publication Date:
2020-01-13
Description:
In mid-2014 the Dawn team finalized preparations for the spacecrafts approach to Ceres. The design was the product of careful planning that began several years in advance, when the spacecraft left Vesta in September 2012. However, a few months prior to the anticipated start of approach, the spacecraft entered a safe mode. While temporary loss of thrust for ion propulsion missions is usually not mission-critical, it still presents many challenges. The safing event occurred at a time when thrusting to match Ceres orbital velocity was most effective, which meant the spacecraft must fly past Ceres before capturing into orbit. The new approach geometry changed the teams strategy for navigating the spacecraft safely into orbit around Ceres with optical data. In this paper we describe the challenges of navigating the Dawn spacecraft into orbit around Ceres, including the safing event and re-design of the approach architecture.
Keywords:
Astrodynamics
Type:
AIAA 2016-5426
,
JPL-CL-16-3759
,
AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Conference; Sep 13, 2016 - Sep 16, 2016; Long Beach, CA; United States
Format:
text
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