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Completed TRL 1 (started at 1, targeting 1)
By tracking those probes, we can estimate the asteroid's gravity field and infer its underlying composition and structure. This approach offers a diverse measurement set, equivalent to planning and executing many independent and unique flyby encounters of a single spacecraft. The resulting dataset can yield a global model of the body's mass distribution and reveal unique aspects of the body's interior structure that are otherwise unobservable. This concept offers the possibility of achieving new scientific measurements that extend our understanding of our solar system, benefit human spaceflight, and support planetary protection. The concept consists of a spacecraft releasing a swarm of small, low-cost probes during a flyby past an asteroid or comet.
This study describes a new technology for discerning the gravity fields and mass distribution of a solar system small body, without requiring dedicated orbiters or landers. Instead of a lander, a spacecraft releases a collection of small, simple probes during a flyby past an asteroid or comet. By tracking those probes from the host spacecraft, one can estimate the asteroid's gravity field and infer its underlying composition and structure. This approach offers a diverse measurement set, equivalent to planning and executing many independent and unique flyby encounters of a single spacecraft. This method offers a feasible, affordable approach to enabling or augmenting flyby science.
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