Trajectory Design About Binary Asteroids Through Coupled Three Body Problems

The study of the dynamical environment near an asteroid pair has become an extremely relevant topic to design trajectories for future missions design. This study analyzes the dynamical environment in the proximity of a binary asteroid system and develops some useful tools to design trajectories about the asteroid couple, exploiting convenient dynamical properties of three-body systems. The interaction between two different three-body systems is analyzed and a convenient dynamical environment is defined in the vicinity of the asteroid pair by introducing the concept of Surface Of Equivalence (SOE). A possible trajectory design method is shown, using invariant manifolds associated to the Circular Restricted Three-Body Problem and multi-dimensional Poincaré maps. An example of a suitable trajectory for the lift-off/landing of a spacecraft from the primary asteroid is finally shown.