Advanced Navigation Strategies for Asteroid Sample Return Missions

Sample-return missions to primitive solar system bodies (asteroids, comets, and planetary satellites) can provide a wealth of scientific information and insight into the composition and origins of the solar system. Recent interest in primitive body missions has been driven by the possibility of human near-Earth object missions, Earth conjunction analysis, and scientific discovery. Precision navigation to acquire a sample from a primitive solar system body and return it to Earth presents unique challenges beyond traditional Earth-based and interplanetary missions.