The Origin and Evolution of the Asteroid Main Belt

Astrophysics, abstract
astro-ph/0511370

From: Anja C. Andersen [view email]
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 23:04:06 GMT   (396kb)

The Origin and Evolution of the Asteroid Main Belt

Authors:
Philip R. Bidstrup,
Henning Haack (Copenhagen Geological Museum),
Anja C. Andersen (Dark Cosmology Center),
Rene Michelsen,
John Leif Jorgensen (Danish Technical University)
Comments: Conference proceedings for the 6th IAA International Conference on
“Low-Cost Planetary Missions” held October 11-13, 2005 in Kyoto, Japan
Report-no: NORDITA-2005-74

Using a fully autonomous spacecraft – Bering – we propose to detect and study
sub-km asteroids from an orbit within the asteroid Main Belt. The main purpose
of the proposed Bering mission is to detect a statistically significant sample
of an expected population of approximately 10^(10) main belt asteroids in the
size range 1 m to 1 km. These asteroids are too faint to be observed using
Earth-based telescopes. Sub-km asteroids can be detected from spacecraft at
close range but due to the high relative velocities and the long communication
times this requires a fully autonomous spacecraft. Using theoretical estimates
of the distribution and abundance of sub-km asteroids we find that the Bering
mission would detect approximately 6 new sub-km asteroids per day. With an
expected lifetime for the mission of a few years we expect to detect and study
several thousand sub-km asteroids. Results from the Bering mission would allow
us to: 1) Provide further links between groups of meteorites and their parent
asteroids. 2) Constrain the cratering rate at planetary surfaces and thus allow
significantly improved cratering ages for terrains on Mars and other planets.
3) Constrain processes that transfer small asteroids from orbits in the main
belt to the inner Solar System.

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