DISCUS – The Deep Interior Scanning CubeSat mission to a rubble pile near-Earth asteroid
Patrick Bambach, Jakob Deller, Esa Vilenius, Sampsa Pursiainen, Mika Takala, Hans Martin Braun, Harald Lentz, Manfred Wittig
(Submitted on 4 May 2018)
We
have performed an initial stage conceptual design study for the Deep
Interior Scanning CubeSat (DISCUS), a tandem 6U CubeSat carrying a
bistatic radar as main payload. DISCUS will be operated either as an
independent mission or accompanying a larger one. It is designed to
determine the internal macroporosity of a 260-600 m diameter Near Earth
Asteroid (NEA) from a few kilometers distance. The main goal will be to
achieve a global penetration with a low-frequency signal as well as to
analyze the scattering strength for various different penetration depths
and measurement positions.
Moreover, the measurements will be
inverted through a computed radar tomography (CRT) approach. The
scientific data provided by DISCUS would bring more knowledge of the
internal configuration of rubble pile asteroids and their collisional
evolution in the Solar System. It would also advance the design of
future asteroid deflection concepts. We aim at a single-unit (1U) radar
design equipped with a half-wavelength dipole antenna. The radar will
utilize a stepped-frequency modulation technique the baseline of which
was developed for ESA’s technology projects GINGER and PIRA. The radar
measurements will be used for CRT and shape reconstruction. The CubeSat
will also be equipped with an optical camera system and laser altimeter
to sup- port navigation and shape reconstruction. We provide the details
of the measurement methods to be applied along with the requirements
derived of the known characteristics of rubble pile asteroids.
Comments: Submitted to Advances in Space Research
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
Cite as: arXiv:1805.01750 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:1805.01750v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
Submission history
From: Patrick Bambach
[v1] Fri, 4 May 2018 13:05:34 GMT (4178kb,D)
https://arxiv.org/abs/1805.01750
