meetings - Space Flight Mechanics Committee

13-406 Being Lost in Space
Yuya Mimasu, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency; Sho Taniguchi, Fujitsu
Limited; Hiroshi Takeuchi, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency; Yoji Shirasawa,
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency; Osamu Mori, Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency; Ryu Funase, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency; Takanao Saiki, JAXA /
ISAS; Yuichi Tsuda, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
The world’s first solar sail IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of
the Sun) which is operated by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) lost
communication with the ground station due to the power shortage on December 24, 2011.
In order to acquire IKAROS again after the power comes back, we immediately initiated to
predict the attitude and orbit for the spacecraft. As the result of the effort for the prediction,
finally we acquire IKAROS after 9 months. This paper presents that the attitude and orbit
prediction technique, while IKAROS was lost in space.
16:15 AAS In-Flight Aerodynamic and Mass Properties Identification Design for Mars
13-407 Aerobraking
Ling Jiang, Beihang University
Aerobraking is a revolutionary technique that has been used successfully in recent Mars
missions. But consideration of significant risk and cost has led to the development of
autonomous aerobraking design. This paper proposes a novel method of estimating varying
aerodynamic and mass properties in-flight to improve the onboard capacity for corridor
controller design. The identification approach is divided into two steps: executing mass
properties identification at the apoapsis walk-in and adjustment maneuvers first, and then
implementing aerodynamic property estimation during atmospheric passes. Simulation
results show that the proposed approach is simple and effective, making it suitable for on-
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23 rd AAS / AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting