Mission Analysis and Trajectory Design for NanoSat Scientific Exploration Around Binary Systems Leveraging the Dynamical Environment

The increasingly ambitious objectives of small bodies exploration pose several difficulties to missions design, requiring a precise development of safe and robust trajectories, to maximize the science return whilst mitigating the detrimental effect of environmental uncertainties. A dedicated scenario is required for asteroids binary systems, where the presence of two attractors aggravates the uncertainties’ influence. In such scenario, the paper proposes a mission concept for binary systems exploration, with the final objective of defining a safe and effective strategy to characterize the bodies. Particular attention is posed to surface observation and coverage, assuming a suitable payload dedicated for the purpose.