Sensitivity Analysis of Asteroid Ejecta Models for Future In-Orbit Sample Collection Mission

This work presents a sensitivity analysis on ejecta models used to model impact events onto small bodies in the Solar System. The application in exam is focused on kinetic impacts on Near Earth Asteroids to study the possibility of collecting the generated fragments in orbit, thus avoiding landing or touchdown operations. The sensitivity analysis shown in this work is articulated in three phases. A first analysis that studies the effect of the impactor and target properties on the overall fate of the ejecta. A second analysis that focuses on quasi-stable orbits: here we estimate the number of particles expected to be trapped into quasi-stable orbits depending on the impact location and the characteristics of the impact event. A third and final phase that focuses on a numerical methodology to predict the flux of impacts on a spacecraft positioned around the asteroids. This allows the estimate of the number of collectable particles by the spacecraft ass a function of its position. For each one of these analyses, we study their sensitivity to different aspects of the ejecta model.