Orbital Evolution and Environmental Analysis Around Asteroid 2008 EV5

The orbital evolution and environmental analyses around the target asteroid, 2008 EV5, for the ESA’s Marco Polo R mission are assessed during the proximity operations to minimize the efforts towards the improvement of the Guidance, Navigation and Control system. With this analysis, we will extend our knowledge in the decision-making when the spacecraft is flying under unknown environmental conditions, such as the solar radiation pressure and the gravitational harmonics due to the irregular shape of the body. We compare analyses performed on different asteroid shape models, such as a parameterized model, an ellipsoid model and a high fidelity mascons shape model.