Modeling and Simulation of Asteroid Capture Using a Deformable Membrane Capture Device

Abstract

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration have recently been investigating a mission concept known as the Asteroid Redirect Mission, aimed at collecting a large amount of asteroid material and transporting it into lunar orbit for inspection by human astronauts. Of the two mission options that have been considered, one involves the capture of an entire near-Earth asteroid in the 10-m class by a robotic spacecraft. The spacecraft would first make contact with the asteroid through a deformable membrane, before securing it inside a large flexible bagging mechanism. In this paper we describe the development and implementation of a model designed for simulation of the capture process, which includes a low-complexity representation of the interaction dynamics.