SMALL-BODY GRAVITATIONAL FIELD APPROXIMATION METHODS

Small celestial bodies such as comets and asteroids are the target of space exploration missions which have invigorated noticeable interest in aerospace communities for nearby orbit designs. Among the requirements for planning such missions is an accurate model of their gravitational fields which serves even the most irregularly shaped bodies. This paper offers alternative approaches for generating gravity models of these bodies by using size-varying element approximations. The geometric models are explained and are evaluated for modeling and computational performance. Each gravity model is compared with that of a tetrahedron model to verify accuracy and reliability for practical applications.