About this Research Topic

Background

Asteroids and comets are pristine leftovers from the formation of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago. They are rich in key elements that support Life and exploring them will enable our understanding of the solar system formation and Life on Earth. The gravitational forces of large planets and collisions with other asteroids and comets alter their orbits. Thus, following many deflections, they may occasionally intersect Earth's orbit and could pose a threat to our planet. While asteroids and comets might pose a threat, they are also rich in valuable commodities and may represent an opportunity for future space economy and for supporting human spaceflight. In recent years, advancements in robotic spacecraft have allowed a further understanding of their formation in some cases by returning samples.

Since 2019, many robotic spacecrafts have been sent to visit asteroids. JAXA's Hayabusa2 mission has returned Ryugu samples in December 2020 while the spacecraft will arrive at asteroid 1998 KY26 in 2031. NASA's OSIRIS-REx will return Bennu samples on September 2023. In October 2021, NASA's Lucy mission was successfully launched, and plan to visit one asteroid from the main asteroid belt and seven Jupiter's trojan asteroids while NASA's DART, the first planetary defense mission to Didymos binary system, was launched in November 2021 and plan to impact Dimorphos in September 2022. ESA's Hera mission will follow DART with a launch expected for 2024 while JAXA's is planning a sample and return mission to Phobos with the launch of MMX in 2024. Finally, NASA's Psyche mission will visit the first metal asteroid in 2026. The aim of the collection is to focus on the technological advancement in robotic spacecraft for future missions to minor bodies. This includes the use of mobile rovers, landers (i.e., Hayabusa2 mission), and CubeSats (i.e. DART and Hera). Particular focus is given to trajectory design methods (e.g., orbiting, hovering, and landing), mission operations (e.g., touchdown, and artificial impact), and the use of autonomy.

This Research Topic aims at presenting the latest advancement in robotic exploration of asteroids and comets with a particular interest in the use of landers, mobile rovers, and CubeSats. The scope of this topic is to provide the latest guidance and navigation techniques for autonomous exploration including trajectory design, orbit determination, and operations around minor bodies tackling the problem of operating a spacecraft around the weak gravity field of minor bodies. New mission concepts are also welcome. Research papers can include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Trajectory design for asteroids and comets proximity operations (e.g., hovering, orbiting, and landing)
• Arrival phase at minor bodies including rendezvous and ballistic captures
• Spacecraft onboard deployable (e.g., rovers, landers, cameras, impactors, and CubeSats) and instruments
• Use of autonomy for proximity operations (e.g., AI and machine learning)
• Sampling and impact techniques
• Remote sensing and radio science operations
• New minor bodies mission concepts including those for emerging applications (e.g., asteroid mining and human exploration) and propulsion systems (e.g., solar sails)

Keywords: asteroid, comet, planetary defense, asteroid mining, small-body mission design and operations

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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