Robust Solar Sail Trajectory Design for the NEA Scout Mission

Performed at NASA JPL


NEA Scout (Image credits: NASA)

This project conducted research on robust solar sail trajectory design under uncertainties for the NEA Scout mission. The NEA Scout mission is a joint effort between NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The NEA Scout spacecraft is a 6U CubeSat equipped with a solar sail as the primary means of propulsion to perform a slow flyby of a Near Earth Asteroid (NEA). This project involved participation in the mission design effort to generate solar sail trajectories for NEA Scout that are robust to unplanned safe mode events, as well as orbit determination and maneuver execution errors.