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Multiple Asteroid Flyby Missions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
Extract
The use of spacecraft for studying the physical properties of the asteroid belt can be approached in several ways. Certainly the simplest approach is to send a spacecraft into the asteroid belt and measure the effects of the environment encountered; this has the advantage of not requiring a vehicle to be targeted to any particular destination. With such an approach, properties may be obtained for those classes of objects that are populous enough to provide a significant number of encounters within the measurement range of the spacecraft. Unfortunately, the large asteroids do not constitute such a class of objects; the probability of an undirected spacecraft passing within measurement range of an asteroid having a diameter of 1 or more km is negligible.
- Type
- Part III-Possible Space Missions and Future Work
- Information
- International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 12: Physical Studies of Minor Planets , 1971 , pp. 527 - 537
- Copyright
- Copyright © NASA 1971
References
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