Mission Analysis of Sample Return from Jovian Trojan Asteroid by Solar Power Sail

抄録

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are planning an outer solar system exploration and sample return mission from a Jovian Trojan asteroid using a 3000 m² solar power sail. The difficulty of this mission is a severe restriction on the weight; only 300 kg is allocated for sampling and returning to Earth. In this weight, fuel for trajectory and attitude control, sampling mechanism, re-entry capsule, and other systems required to return to the Earth are included. In this paper, a preliminary analysis of this sample return mission is conducted. Three scenarios for sampling are proposed; sampling with a 3000 m² solar power sail, with a detachable small solar power sail using electric propulsion systems and with a small probe using chemical propulsion systems. The mission analysis shows that the most feasible configuration is to conduct the sampling with the 3000 m² solar power sail using an extension mast.