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HawkEye 360 Satellite Concept – each spacecraft is a small approximately 10 kg microsatellite, with roughly 40 x 30 x 20 cm dimensions.
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Deep Space Industries (DSI) is developing a microspacecraft asteroid exploration mission named Prospector-1. The goal of this mission is prospecting for resources, particularly water, extractable from the surface of a volatiles-rich target asteroid. This mission objective implies not just surveying the water content of the surface, but penetrating...
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... This opens the door to a wide range of cost effective alternative propellants, including molecular gases like CO 2 , O 2 , and H 2 O. 5 Water has the added benefit of not requiring highly pressurized storage, making it particularly well suited for ride-share launches. Currently available water operated small sat thrusters relying on electrothermal and electrolysis technologies 6,7 are limited to I SP values on order of 180 to 310 seconds. In theory, an appreciably higher ISP, over 1000 seconds, can be attained with an ECR device operating on water. ...
Electrodeless plasma thrusters, and in particular Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) thrusters, are attracting an increasing amount of commercial and academic interest by virtue of their ability to function without a neutralizer. This opens the door to operation with a wide range of alternative propellants all the while ensuring mitigation of some of the major life limiting erosion issues plaguing established technologies like Grid-ded Ion Engines and Hall Effect Thrusters. Building on the success of the proof-of-concept ECR thruster AQUAJET, the AQUAJET|NJET|XJET consortium, comprised of AVS UK Ltd., the University of Surrey, STFC ISIS, Viper RF, and Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., have undertaken a follow on project to design, build, and test an improved thruster model capable of operating on water, xenon, and ammonia propellants. In the context of this project, analytical plasma modelling of water and ammonia discharges was undertaken. In the case of water discharge, these analyses revealed that at low electron temperatures (less than 6 eV) a significant fraction of energy is being dissipated to molecular dissociation. These analyses also allowed us to conclude that ammonia discharge can be expected to be slightly better than water in terms of power efficiency. Feasibility of ammonia operation was thus confirmed. We also describe the design upgrade of the AQUAJET breadboard, namely the improvements made to its microwave line, and to several of its key components.
... If the study of asteroids is demonstrated to be possible using autonomous 3U CubeSats, these could provide a low-cost solution to determine initial stages of solar system formation through asteroid exploration (or the primordial sources of organic matter if used for cometary exploration) (National Research Council, 2013), they could be used to identify potential targets for future missions, to complement the scientific objectives of larger missions, or to support the emerging asteroid mining industry (Calla et al., 2017), etc. Noteworthy small-satellite missions proposed by commercial asteroid mining companies include, for instance, Deep Space Industries' 50-kg microsatellite mission to land on an asteroid (Bonin et al., 2016), and Planetary Resources' already-in-orbit 6U CubeSat mission to demonstrate asteroid prospecting technologies (Planetary Resources, 2018). ...
... Deep Space Industries, for instance, offers 1.5U and 2.5U water-based thrusters providing 440 N s and 1300 N s of total impulse, with respective minimum impulse bits of 25 mN s and 50 mN s (Deep Space Industries, 2016). Their thrusters will be flight-tested in the 2018 Prospector-X and HawkEye 360's Pathfinder missions (Bonin et al., 2016). VACCO Industries also developed a 2U cold gas propulsion system for the 2018 MarCO mission (25-mN nominal thrust, 755-N•s total impulse) (VACCO Industries, 2015), and now also offers a variety of cold and warm gas propulsion modules for CubeSats. ...
CubeSat technology has recently attracted great interest from the scientific community, industry and space agencies, and represents today an exciting movement towards a more affordable and accessible space industry. In view of potential applications of CubeSat technology to small-body planetary exploration, this paper studies the feasibility of using autonomous CubeSats to flyby near-Earth asteroids. This work provides an overview of the current state of CubeSat technology and proposes a 3U CubeSat mission using primarily off-the-shelf components. The proposed mission considers a CubeSat is deployed by a larger spacecraft in a periodic orbit around the first (L1) or the second (L2) Sun-Earth Lagrange points (common destinations to observe the Sun and outer space), from where fuel-optimal impulsive trajectories are designed to flyby asteroids between 2019 and 2025. Navigation support and ground operations costs still represent a major challenge for interplanetary CubeSats. As such, Monte Carlo simulations are performed to determine the flyby accuracies that can be accomplished by a 3U CubeSat flying autonomously (i.e., using observations of the Sun during cruise and observations of the asteroid before the flyby to estimate its own trajectory, instead of using ground stations for navigation support). Asteroid flyby opportunities for an autonomous 3U CubeSat are identified between years 2019 and 2025. Flyby altitudes below 500 km are found possible with currently-available CubeSat components. Possible science payloads are also overviewed, and the potential scientific return of such a low-cost mission is discussed.
... Also the organic and hydrated materials could be detected [2]. Bonin et al. [23] proposed a viable mid-infrared camera with 0.5 m spatial resolution at 10 km range and spectrometer in order to identify the asteroid characteristics for the DSI Prospector-1 spacecraft. Given this system's ability to characterize asteroid surface features and identify potential landing locations, it will be included in this project. ...
... For the spacecraft side, the Prospector-1 mission from DSI (Deep Space Industries) proposes the use of X-band communication. In their studies, they also define some link budget characteristics such as the transponders power, to ensure continuous communication [23]. Considering data volume, the prospection phase is the system driver, however, no real time communication is needed. ...
Asteroid mining offers the possibility to revolutionize supply and availability of many resources vital for human civilization. Analysis suggests that Near-Earth Asteroids (NEA) contain enough volatile and high value minerals to make the mining process economically feasible. Considering possible applications, specifically the mining of water in space has become a major focus for near-term options. Most proposed projects for asteroid mining, however, involve spacecraft based on traditional designs resulting in large, monolithic and expensive systems. An alternative approach is presented in this paper, basing the asteroid mining process on multiple small spacecraft, i.e. a decentralized architecture. To the best knowledge of the authors, limited thorough analysis of the asteroid mining capability of small spacecraft has been conducted. This paper explores the lower limit of spacecraft size for asteroid mining operations. After defining a feasible miniaturized spacecraft design, capable of extracting water from asteroids and transporting it to an appropriate orbit, a high-level economic analysis is performed. This analysis reveals several key constraints in making near-term asteroid mining financially sustainable under the assumptions given in this study.
... Bonin et al, [11] proposed a visible and midinfrared camera with 0.5 m spatial resolution at 10 km range and spectrometer in order to identify the asteroid characteristics for the DSI Prospector-1 spacecraft. This approach is also considered in this project as it is able to identify the resources and characterize the landing spot. ...
... The considered approach uses X band antennas for the entire system. Prospector-1 mission from DSI (Deep space industries) proposes the use of X band communication and some basic requirements for prospection activities regarding the link budget [11]. The ESA Marcopolo mission considered the use of three antennas for communications: a high gain antenna, a medium gain antenna and 2 low gain antennas, basing the design on the Bepi Colombo and the Solar Orbiter mission. ...
Recent studies suggest that Near-Earth Asteroids (NEA) supposedly contain enough volatile and high value minerals to make the mining process economically feasible. Considering future applications, the importance of mining water in space has become a major focus. Most proposed projects for asteroid mining, however, involve single spacecraft that are traditionally large and expensive. Recent examples of such concepts, which rely on the capturing capacity of the spacecraft are the Asteroid Retrieval Mission (ARM) and the Asteroid Provided in-situ Supplies (APIS) project. As an alternative approach, asteroid mining could be based on multiple small spacecraft, another emerging trend in the space sector, which could enable a higher degree in reliability and a potentially lower cost of operation and a smaller chance of single point failures. Nonetheless, limited analysis on the asteroid mining capability of small spacecraft was conducted so far. The project explored the possibility to perform asteroid mining operation with small spacecraft. An overview of the different approaches is provided, analyzing the current architectures and technologies. This analysis provides the foundation to establish a feasible design for a spacecraft capable of extracting water from asteroids and transport it to an appropriate orbit for further processing.
Interest in the new space industry is growing in Korea due to the lifting of the US–Korea missile guidelines and the development of the Nuri launch vehicle. This paper reviews the space industry and the technology for asteroid mining. The definition and classification system of asteroids are explained, and first-generation companies in the asteroid mining industry and start-ups established after 2010 are introduced. The countries of the relevant companies are becoming more diversified, and the business areas are expanding to include not only space telescopes and space launch vehicles but also robotic mining equipment, space manufacturing and mineral processing, and the construction of space gas stations. The trends of exploration, transportation, and the energy and mining technologies necessary for asteroid mining are summarized, and issues related to international laws and economic feasibility are presented. Continuous investment and efforts are required to develop technologies and improve international laws for asteroid mining.
Asteroid mining offers the possibility of revolution supply and availability of many sources vital for human sources, also there are private companies that support asteroid mining for recognition precious metals. Hence, the new missions are defining beyond LEO, so light-time communication delay issues, such as time lag and low bandwidth, will prohibit this type of operation because of huge data and limitation at windows to DSN. Hence, several solutions have been considered such as use higher frequency bands direct to ground, spacecraft autonomy system, swarm small satellites asteroids prospector etc. by this way the communication is the most important subsystem for this issue, based on the previous researches for prospecting of asteroids, Ka or X band is used for direct communication to ground and S or UHF band is used for constellation. In this proposal a communication subsystem for a small-satellite (1U, 2U…) by direct communication to ground and constellation by mother ship and mining robot is investigated.
For in‐situ resource utilization (ISRU), the cost‐mass conundrum needs to be solved, before any other formidable challenges may be tackled. Technologies may need to be conceptualised from first principals, rather than taking the most advanced technology of today. Using this approach, this paper seeks to provide a think tank about how chemical process intensification can help with technology and business case disruption of ISRU matters, how this might influence Space‐industry start‐ups, and first of all even Earth‐industry transformations. The disruptive technology considered is continuous micro‐flow solvent extraction and, as another disruptive element therein, the use of ionic liquids (instead of conventional organic solvents). The Space business considered is Asteroid mining, as it is probably the most challenging resource site, and the focus is on its last step: the purification of adjacent metals (cobalt versus nickel). The key economic barrier is defined as the reduction of the amount of process water used in the Asteroid mining process. This paper suggests a pathway toward water savings by orders of magnitude, up to the technological limit of best Earth‐process intensification and their physical limits (e.g. of solubility). This is believed to provide a solution to a major economic bottleneck, whilst leaving many technology developments to be achieved before a holistic system and business picture can be given.
We report on recent efforts to advance water-propellant-based microsatellite electric propulsion using the Microwave Electrothermal Thruster (MET). This thruster uses microwave power at 17.8 GHz for plasma production within a resonant cavity. Water is utilized as the propellant, unlike previous MET models that have used helium, ammonia, and hydrazine decomposition products. Prior miniaturization efforts have resulted in a CuMET version that can be integrated into a 3U CubeSat bus. An overview of a proposed implementation is presented. Redesign of the CuMET allows for implementation of the thruster block into the "tuna can" volume available in the CubeSat standard, increasing either propellant or secondary payload space onboard. The theoretical underpinnings of water as a propellant in an MET are also detailed, including challenges faced in testing and discovered through analysis of the MET flow and heating system. Continuing work involves the development of viable spacecraft microwave signal sources and an adequate heater configuration for water vapor production aboard a spacecraft.
