Near Earth Asteroid Scout Solar Torque Model

Andy Heaton

NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

Mr. Heaton has been at NASA full time since 1990.  In the first 12 years he supported numerous payloads on the Shuttle, including micro-gravity materials experiments, astronomical observations, rendezvous lidar sensors, and the re-flight of the Tethered Satellite System.  Since 2003, Mr. Heaton has supported a number of technology development projects with a primary focus on solar sails.  Mr. Heaton was the GN&C lead for the In-Space Solar Sail project from 2003 to 2006, and supported the proposal for ST-9 in 2006 as well as some mission design studies in 2007.  After a hiatus in technology imposed by Michael Griffin, Mr. Heaton resumed working with solar sails in late 2010, contributing to the successful Nano-Sail D mission as well as supporting numerous proposals for additional solar sail missions.  Since NEA Scout was selected as a secondary payload in late 2012, Mr. Heaton has served since then as the lead for the thrust and torque model, and since 2015 as the Guidance and Control Lead.

Abstract

The Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout is a solar sail mission whose objective is to scout at least one Near Earth Asteroid in preparation for manned missions to asteroids. NEA Scout will use a solar sail as the primary means of... [ view full abstract ]

Authors

  1. Andy Heaton (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center)
  2. Kyle Miller (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University)
  3. Naeem Ahmad (NASA Marshall Space Flight Center)

Topic Areas

Modeling , Other , Radiation

Session

Session 10 » Modeling and Observations (09:00 - Friday, 19th May)

Paper

Environments_Heaton.pdf

Presentation Files

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