Operational Mass Measurement for Flyby Reconnaissance Missions of Potentially Hazardous Asteroid
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arXiv
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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| Formato: | Preprint |
| Publicado: |
2026
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| _version_ | 1866915841572864000 |
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| author | Atchison, Justin A. Cascioli, Gael Pedros-Faura, Anivid Mazarico, Erwan Bull, Rylie A. McMahon, Jay Smith, Evan J. Cremons, Daniel R. |
| author_facet | Atchison, Justin A. Cascioli, Gael Pedros-Faura, Anivid Mazarico, Erwan Bull, Rylie A. McMahon, Jay Smith, Evan J. Cremons, Daniel R. |
| contents | This study evaluates a technique for determining the mass of a potentially hazardous asteroid from a high-speed flyby in the context of a rapid reconnaissance planetary defense scenario. We consider a host spacecraft that dispenses a small CubeSat, which acts as a test-mass. Both spacecraft perform approach maneuvers to target their flyby locations, with the host targeting a close proximity flyby and the CubeSat targeting a distant flyby. By incorporating short-range intersatellite measurements between the host and the CubeSat, the mass measurement sensitivity is substantially improved. We evaluate a set of proposed host and CubeSat hardware options against the 2023 and 2025 Planetary Defense Conference hypothetical threats, as well as a hypothetical flyby of 2024 YR4. These scenarios differ predominantly in their flyby speeds, which span from 1.7 to 22 km/s. Based on these scenarios, we demonstrate that a typical radio-frequency intersatellite measurement is ineffective for asteroids with diameters relevant to planetary defense (i.e., 50 - 500 m). However, we find that augmenting the system with a laser-based intersatellite ranging system or a high-precision Doppler system can enable mass measurements of asteroids as small as 100 m across all cases, and as small as 50 m for the slower (< 8 km/s) cases. The results are very sensitive to the timing of the final maneuver, which is used to target the low-altitude flyby point. This presents an operational challenge for the smallest objects, where optical detection times are comparatively late and the optical navigation targeting knowledge converges too slowly. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_10040 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Operational Mass Measurement for Flyby Reconnaissance Missions of Potentially Hazardous Asteroid Atchison, Justin A. Cascioli, Gael Pedros-Faura, Anivid Mazarico, Erwan Bull, Rylie A. McMahon, Jay Smith, Evan J. Cremons, Daniel R. Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics Earth and Planetary Astrophysics This study evaluates a technique for determining the mass of a potentially hazardous asteroid from a high-speed flyby in the context of a rapid reconnaissance planetary defense scenario. We consider a host spacecraft that dispenses a small CubeSat, which acts as a test-mass. Both spacecraft perform approach maneuvers to target their flyby locations, with the host targeting a close proximity flyby and the CubeSat targeting a distant flyby. By incorporating short-range intersatellite measurements between the host and the CubeSat, the mass measurement sensitivity is substantially improved. We evaluate a set of proposed host and CubeSat hardware options against the 2023 and 2025 Planetary Defense Conference hypothetical threats, as well as a hypothetical flyby of 2024 YR4. These scenarios differ predominantly in their flyby speeds, which span from 1.7 to 22 km/s. Based on these scenarios, we demonstrate that a typical radio-frequency intersatellite measurement is ineffective for asteroids with diameters relevant to planetary defense (i.e., 50 - 500 m). However, we find that augmenting the system with a laser-based intersatellite ranging system or a high-precision Doppler system can enable mass measurements of asteroids as small as 100 m across all cases, and as small as 50 m for the slower (< 8 km/s) cases. The results are very sensitive to the timing of the final maneuver, which is used to target the low-altitude flyby point. This presents an operational challenge for the smallest objects, where optical detection times are comparatively late and the optical navigation targeting knowledge converges too slowly. |
| title | Operational Mass Measurement for Flyby Reconnaissance Missions of Potentially Hazardous Asteroid |
| topic | Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics Earth and Planetary Astrophysics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.10040 |