23 citations · 80 across the 12 of their papers we have counts for
7 papers · 1 filter
An On-Orbit CubeSat Centrifuge for Asteroid Science and Exploration
Jekan Thangavelautham, Erik Asphaug, Stephen Schwartz
There are thousands of asteroids in near-Earth space and millions expected in the Main Belt. They are diverse in their physical properties and compositions. They are also time caps…
A Milli-Newton Propulsion System for the Asteroid Mobile Imager and Geologic Observer (AMIGO)
Greg Wilburn, Erik Asphaug, Jekan Thangavelautham
Exploration of small bodies, namely comets and asteroids remain a challenging endeavor due to their low gravity. The risk is so high that missions such as Hayabusa II and OSIRIS-RE…
Evaluation of Mother-Daughter Architectures for Asteroid Belt Exploration
Leonard Dean Vance, Erik Asphaug, Jekan Thangavelautham
This paper examines the effectiveness of an asteroid exploration architecture comprised of multiple nanosatellite sized spacecraft deployed from a single mother ship into a helioce…
Boulder Stranding in Ejecta Launched by an Impact Generated Seismic Pulse
Esteban Wright, Alice C. Quillen, Juliana South +6
We consider how an impact generated seismic pulse affects the surface of an asteroid distant from the impact site. With laboratory experiments on dry polydisperse gravel mixtures,…
Signatures of hit and run collisions
Erik Asphaug
Terrestrial planets grew in a series of similar-sized collisions that swept up most of the next-largest bodies. Theia was accreted by the Earth to form the Moon according to the th…
On-Orbit Smart Camera System to Observe Illuminated and Unilluminated Space Objects
Steve Morad, Ravi Teja Nallapu, Himangshu Kalita +5
The wide availability of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) electronics that can withstand Low Earth Orbit conditions has opened avenue for wide deployment of CubeSats and small-satel…