Optimal flights to near-Earth asteroid

The spacecraft flights to the Near-Earth asteroid in order to give an impact influence on the asteroid, correct its orbit and prevent the asteroid's collision with the Earth are analyzed. In the first part, the impulse flights are analyzed in the Lambert approach. There are determined the optimal trajectories maximizing the asteroid deviation from the Earth. In the second part, the flights with the chemical and electric-jet engines are analyzed. The high thrust is used to launch the spacecraft from the geocentric orbit, and the low thrust is applied for the heliocentric motion. On the base of optimal impulse transfer, the optimal low thrust trajectories are determined using Pontryagin maximum principle. The numerical results are given for the flight to the asteroid Toutatis. Parameters of the spacecraft impact on the asteroid are determined. The asteroid deviation from the Earth caused by the spacecraft influence is presented. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.