In Acta Astronautica for Jun 2025 (vol 231):
Lu, J. Shang, H. Zhang, X. Speeding up heterogeneous binary asteroid system propagation through the physics-informed neural network Page 64 .02.022
Impresario, G. Zinzi, A. Amoroso, M. et al. The Italian microsatellite mission LICIACube as an enabler for innovative strategies in interplanetary exploration and planetary def… Page 223 .01.052
Dynamics: seems so simple (follow the laws), yet asteroids are not “spherical cows” nor homogeneous solids, under a simple Sun-only gravitational reference. In particular (no pun intended), adding a third mass to the system (the “three-body problem”) turns everything into a computational quagmire. Lu et al. try to pull us up from the swamp of stats.
And speaking of third bodies- ESA’s Hera is now en route to Didymos/Dimorphos. And it, in turn, is carrying a second and third probe. All trace back, directly or indirectly, to LICIACube, carried by DART. LICIACube’s success is now a heritage: what leverage did we gain, for future missions?