Gravity Estimation at Small Bodies via Optical Tracking of Hopping Artificial Probes

Abstract: Despite numerous successful missions to small celestial bodies, the gravity field of such targets has been poorly characterized so far. Gravity estimates can be used to infer the internal structure and composition of small bodies and, as such, have strong implications in the fields of planetary science, planetary defense, and in-situ resource utilization. Current gravimetry techniques at small bodies mostly rely on tracking the spacecraft orbital motion, where the gravity observability is low. To date, only lower-degree and order spherical harmonics of small-body gravity fields could be resolved. In this paper, we evaluate gravimetry performance for a novel mission architecture where artificial probes repeatedly hop across the surface of the small body and perform low-altitude, suborbital arcs. Such probes are tracked using optical measurements from the mothership's onboard camera and orbit determination is performed to estimate the probe trajectories, the small body's rotational kinematics, and the gravity field. The suborbital motion of the probes provides dense observations at low altitude, where the gravity signal is stronger. We assess the impact of observation parameters and mission duration on gravity observability. Results suggest that the gravitational spherical harmonics of a small body with the same mass as the asteroid Bennu, can be observed at least up to degree 40 within months of observations. Measurement precision and frequency are key to achieve high-performance gravimetry.