Feasibility of Capturing and Returning Small Near-Earth Asteroids

Abstract

This paper describes an investigation into the tech nological feasibility of finding, characterizing, robotically capturing, and returnin g an entire Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) to the International Space Station (ISS) for scientific in vestigation, evaluation of its resource potential, determination of its internal structure and other a spects important for planetary defense activities, and to serve as a testbed for human operations in t he vicinity of an asteroid. Reasonable projections suggest that several dozen candidates N EAs in the size range of interest (~2-m diameter) will be known before the end of the decad e from which a suitable target could be selected. The conceptual mission objective is to r eturn a ~10,000-kg asteroid to the ISS in a total flight time of approximately 5 years using a single Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle. Preliminary calculations indicate that this could b e accomplished using a solar electric propulsion (SEP) system with high-power Hall thrusters and a maximum power into the propulsion system of