WG Projects - Call for Ideas

One of the distinctive features of this ITN project is the existence of Working Groups, which will engage into medium term cross-disciplinary projects.

Before the beginning of the OTS, we need to define 3 projects, bearing in mind that Working  Groups should facilitate cross-disciplinary and management/supervision training and blend the activities within the ITN, and are used to expose ESRs to other sectors and industrial standards.

  *At this stage the call for ideas is closed.*

The 3 agreed projects are:

Optimal Rendez-vous with Multiple Asteroids or Space Debris.

This working group will address the design of optimal trajectories, using low-thrust propulsion or solar sailing, to rendez-vous multiple targets such as a selected number of asteroids or space debris in a particular orbital regime.The design of a rendez-vous with multiple moving objects in space is one of the most difficult  problems in computational optimisation as it combines combinatorial optimisation with hybrid optimal control.Yet, this is a fundamental step towards the mitigation of the threat posed by space debris and asteroids, and a key capability to the implementation of any strategy or technology to manipulate asteroids and space debris.  .

Development of an internet-based asteroid deflection calculator

The aim of the project is the development of an internet-based asteroid deflection calculator that can be used, from a browser, to calculate the effect of the deflection given by a selected method. The calculator would compute a number of significative quantities, among which the miss distance, the impact point shift on the Earth (for small deflections), path risk, etc. Quantities or performance indexes and deflection methods that can be selected will evolve and be enriched during the development of Stardust project.  

Preliminary Mission and System design of a spacecraft for the detection and observation of small Atira asteroids.

The project will be focused on the system engineering and mission analysis aspects of a space observatory for the detection and tracking of Atira 
asteroids of small size that cannot be currently detected from Earth