Overall Scheme of Manned Asteroid Exploration Mission

Abstract

The manned spacecraft for deep space exploration, including nuclear thermal propulsion module, fuel tank and supply module, active radiation-resistant module, artificial gravity module, habitation module and multi-task crew cabin is designed in this paper. The size and mass of these elements are presented and the composition, function and characteristics of the main elements are analyzed. The two-impulse transfer trajectories are designed preliminarily on the basis of previous analysis, taking No.4660 asteroid named Nereus as the exploration target. The launch window and optimal transfer trajectory are obtained. The simulation results show that the optimal two-impulse transfer trajectory makes the single impulse within 5 km/s and single transfer time within 160 days, which satisfies the low-energy manned asteroid exploration missions in the future.

Keywords

manned deep space exploration / nuclear thermal propulsion / manned spacecraft / near Earth asteroids / trajectory design and optimization