Design of an in-situ science mission to a Jupiter Trojan

The NASA mission Lucy, launched in 2021, will perform flybys at several Jupiter Trojan asteroids. The logical next step is a close orbiter and/or lander for in situ science at specific Trojans. The present paper reports results for a feasible design of such a mission to the largest Jupiter Trojan, 624 Hektor. The suggested principle, which involves a powered Jupiter gravity assist followed by an extended drift arc towards the target body and an insertion maneuver of around 1 km/s, has been found to lead to comparable mission options for a number of other target Trojans.

Automated summary

The NASA mission Lucy, launched in 2021, will flyby several Jupiter Trojan asteroids. The next step is to design a mission with a close orbiter and/or lander for in situ science at specific Trojans. This paper presents a feasible design for such a mission to the largest Jupiter Trojan, 624 Hektor, and finds that the suggested principle can be applied to other target Trojans as well.