The journal Aerospace Science and Technology covers everything from little ‘copters to starships. But now and then, given its breadth, something is asteroid-relevant. In the Dec issue (vol. 167):
Yang, H. Zhu, S. Ge, D. et al. Impulsive maneuver optimization for small body landing using irregular gravitational field model homotopy Art 110690 .2025.110690
I’ve said before (and before) that ‘landing’ on a microgravity-object is more like docking. But that doesn’t mean we just throw our spacecraft as they may, like coins or dice. Irregular-shaped bodies have irregular gravity, and can do strange things to a descent profile. Yang et al. try a new approach, then test it on a known quantity: the gravity of asteroid (433) Eros, where NEAR Shoemaker landed.