Optimal impact strategies for asteroid deflection

Vasile, M. and Colombo, C. (2008) Optimal impact strategies for asteroid deflection. Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, 31(4), pp. 858-872. (doi: 10.2514/1.33432)

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of optimal impact strategies to deflect potentially dangerous asteroids. To compute the increase in the minimum orbit intersection distance of the asteroid due to an impact with a spacecraft, simple analytical formulas are derived from proximal motion equations. The proposed analytical formulation allows for an analysis of the optimal direction of the deviating impulse transferred to the asteroid. This ideal optimal direction cannot be achieved for every asteroid at any time; therefore, an analysis of the optimal launch opportunities for deviating a number of selected asteroids was performed through the use of a global optimization procedure. The results in this paper demonstrate that the proximal motion formulation has very good accuracy in predicting the actual deviation and can be used with any deviation method because it has general validity. Furthermore, the characterization of optimal launch opportunities shows that a significant deviation can be obtained even with a small spacecraft.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Vasile, Dr Massimiliano
• Authors: Vasile, M., and Colombo, C.
• Subjects: T Technology > TL Motor vehicles. Aeronautics. Astronautics
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Autonomous Systems and Connectivity
• Research Group: Space Advanced Research Team
• Journal Name: Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics
• Publisher: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
• ISSN: 0731-5090
• ISSN (Online): 1533-3884
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2009 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
• First Published: First published in Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics 31(4):858-872
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
36373	1	Optimal interception and deviation of potentially hazardous near earth objects	Gianmarco Radice	Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)	GR/S83999/01	Aerospace Sciences