Miniaturized Near-Earth Asteroid Fly-by Missions: Navigation and AOCS Design

The exploration of deep-space targets, either other planets, moons, or asteroids, has been a leitmotiv for space technology advancement since the early days of space exploration. Nowadays, the interest inNear-Earth Asteroids (NEA) missions has seen a rise because of the multiple objectives, such as planetary protection, in-situ resource exploitation, and scientific research on the evolution of the Solar System. In this framework, the increasing attention towards these missions can be powered by exploiting some of the most recent trends in space technology: miniaturization and autonomy.

This dissertation aims to fill different gaps in the design of miniaturized Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) missions, which are a hot topic for the next decades of deep-space exploration.
In this context, the gaps are identified in:
• the exploitation of a 3U CubeSat platformfor such missions;
• the application of autonomous navigation technique for the cruise phase.