Recent advancements in CubeSat technology unfold new mission ideas and the opportunity to lower the cost of space exploration. Ground operations costs for interplanetary CubeSats, however, still represent a challenge toward low-cost CubeSat missions: hence, certain levels of autonomy are desirable. The feasibility of autonomous asteroid flyby missions using CubeSats is assessed here, and an effective strategy for autonomous operations is proposed. The navigation strategy is composed of observations of the Sun, visible planets, and the target asteroid, whereas the guidance strategy is composed of two optimally timed trajectory correction maneuvers. A Monte Carlo analysis is performed to understand the flyby accuracies that can be achieved by autonomous CubeSats, in consideration of errors and uncertainties in a) departure conditions, b) propulsive maneuvers, c) observations, and d) asteroid ephemerides. Flyby accuracies better than $\pm 100\mathrm{km}(3\sigma )$ are found possible, and main limiting factors to autonomous missions are identified, namely a) on-board asteroid visibility time ($V_{\lim }\ge 11$), b) $\mathrm{\Delta }V$ for correction maneuvers ($>15\mathrm{m}/\mathrm{s}$), c) asteroid ephemeris uncertainty ($<1000\mathrm{km}$), and d) short duration of transfer to asteroid. Ultimately, this study assesses the readiness level of current CubeSat technology to autonomously flyby near-Earth asteroids, in consideration of realistic system specifications, errors, and uncertainties.

CubeSat 技术的最新进展展现了新的任务理念和降低太空探索成本的机会。然而，行星际立方体卫星的地面运营成本仍然是对低成本立方体卫星任务的挑战：因此，需要一定程度的自主权。这里评估了使用 CubeSats 进行自主小行星飞越任务的可行性，并提出了一种有效的自主操作策略。导航策略由对太阳、可见行星和目标小行星的观测组成，而制导策略由两个最佳定时轨迹校正机动组成。考虑到 a) 离场条件中的错误和不确定性，执行蒙特卡罗分析以了解自主立方体卫星可以实现的飞越准确度，b) 推进机动，c) 观测，以及 d) 小行星星历。飞越精度优于$\pm 100\mathrm{公里}(3\sigma )$ 发现可能，并确定了自主任务的主要限制因素，即 a) 机载小行星可见时间（${伏}_{林}\ge 11$), b) $\mathrm{\Delta }伏$ 用于矫正动作（$>15\mathrm{米}/\mathrm{秒}$), c) 小行星星历不确定度（$<1000\mathrm{公里}$)，和 d) 转移到小行星的持续时间短。最终，本研究评估了当前 CubeSat 技术对自主飞越近地小行星的准备水平，同时考虑了现实的系统规格、错误和不确定性。