PRELIMINARY DEVELOPMENT PLAN OF THE ALR, THE LASER RANGEFINDER FOR THE ASTER DEEP SPACE MISSION TO THE 2001 SN263 ASTEROID. DOI: 10.5028/jatm.2011.03033611

The Brazilian deep space mission ASTER, as temporarily named, plans to send a small spacecraft to encounter and investigate the triple asteroid 2001-SN263. The launch is scheduled (initially) to occur in 2015, arriving in 2018. The main motivation of the mission is the development of technology and expertise to leverage the national space sector. Within the scientific goals, the investigation of the still unknown asteroid 2001-SN263. The main project guideline is to aggregate the widest possible Brazilian involvement in the platform, the development and operation of subsystems, integration, payload, as well as in the tracking, navigation, guidance and control of the probe. To meet this guideline, among others, the decision for the development of a laser altimeter in Brazil to fly in the mission was taken. This effort is currently coordinated by a group of researchers from the aerospace engineering personnel of UFABC. This article presents the preliminary development plan for the design of this instrument, which was called ALR (ASTER Laser Rangefinder).