Chelsea Dutenhoffer
ASTE-527

New NEO
TODAY: Dec 17, 2013
A new near-Earth object is discovered!
12/17/2013
Earth
2

9 months from now: Sep 17, 2014
Earth
New NEO
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• M-Type asteroid
• Composition primarily
Iron-Nickel
• Monolithic
• Diameter: 1 km
• Impact would result in 25% global human mortality
9-month warning: must intercept asteroid on its final orbit
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1 Image from simulation described in paper by Wie & Dearborn, 2010
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12/17/2013
New NEO
Earth
June 9, 2014: 100 days before impact
6

Only a small amount of debris impacts Earth
Miss Distance (Earth Radii) Miss Distance (Earth Radii)
1 Image from model described in paper by Wie & Dearborn, 2010
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• Creation of a global planetary defense agency
• Joint, multi-spacecraft program composed of multiple national agencies working together
Nuclear Destroyers Strategic Deflectors Reconnaissance Craft
• Seek to sufficiently fragment asteroid such that it poses no threat to civilization on Earth
• Remaining fragments are small enough that they can be handled via evacuations
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Phase 1: Reconnaissance
Phase 2: Fragmentation
Phase 3: Debris cloud monitoring and strategic deflection
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Purpose:
• Characterize asteroid
• Monitor destruction/deflection attempts
• Real-time target acquisition and programming
• Provide debris cloud information to Earth
Heritage:
• Deep Impact, NEAR, Dawn (NASA)
• Rosetta, Don Quixote (ESA)
• Hayabusa (JAXA)
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• CNES (France): spacecraft
• DLR (Germany): spacecraft
• CSA (Canada): spacecraft
• AEB (Brasil): spacecraft
• Planetary Resources, Deep Space Industries: spacecraft
• ASI (Italy): instrument payload
• VIR/VIRTIS spectrometer heritage
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Purpose:
• Fragment asteroid
• ~1 MT subsurface nuclear explosive
• Position explosive to minimize debris near Earth
Heritage:
• Nuclear weapons, missiles (USA, Russia)
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• Two different systems: Russian and U.S.
• Redundancy
• Partnership between national space and defense agencies
• Repurpose existing nuclear weapons
• Good on short timeframe
• Put weapons to good use
• Agreement already in place to share nuclear information
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Purpose:
• Deflect/destroy large fragments that pose a threat to Earth
• Receive targets from reconnaissance spacecraft, act autonomously
• May or may not be nuclear
Heritage:
• Ballistic missiles and missile defense systems
(US, Russia, Israel, China, France, UK, Italy, India, Japan)
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• CNSA (China): spacecraft
• ISRO (India): spacecraft
• Mars Orbiter Mission, standard Earth-orbiter bus heritage
• ISA (Israel): spacecraft
• Iron Dome missile system, Ofeq/Amos/Eros bus heritage
• JAXA (Japan): spacecraft
• Missile defense system and Hayabusa heritage
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12/17/2013
Goldstone
Madrid
Canberra
Malargüe
Cebreros
New Norcia
Svalbard
TrollSat
Kourou
Bear Lakes
Byalalu
Yevpatoria
Galenki
Miyun
Kashi
Sanya
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• More launch/trajectory options
• More ground stations
• Access to supercomputers for simulations
• Can operate many complementary spacecraft at once
International approval politically necessary for nuclear fragmentation mission
Mission too large for unilateral action
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• EMF shielding for spacecraft near nuclear blast
• Autonomous target acquisition
• Communication between spacecraft without ground in the loop
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• Ahrens, T. J., & Harris, A. W. (1992). Deflection and fragmentation of near-Earth asteroids. Nature, 360(6403), 429-433.
• Barrera, Mark. "Conceptual Design of an Asteroid Interceptor for a Nuclear Deflection Mission." Planetary Defense Conference.
(2004): Web. <http://pdf.aiaa.org/downloads/2004/CDReadyMPDC04_865/2004_1481.pdf>.
• Birch, Douglas. "A New Use for Nuclear Weapons: Hunting Rogue Asteroids." The Center for Public Integrity, 16 Oct 2013. Web.
<http://www.publicintegrity.org/2013/10/16/13547/new-use-nuclear-weapons-hunting-rogue-asteroids>.
• Dearborn, David. "Avoiding Armageddon: Diverting Asteroids with Nuclear Explosives." University of California Television: 08 Feb
2010. Web. <http://www.uctv.tv/shows/Avoiding-Armageddon-Diverting-Asteroids-with-Nuclear-Explosives-17643>.
• Eyes on the Solar System. 2013. NASA Web. <http://eyes.nasa.gov/>.
• Lakdawalla, Emily. "Pretty Pictures: Amazing Asteroid Lutetia." The Planetary Society, 10 Apr 2012. Web.
<http://planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2012/3448.html>.
• MIM-104 Patriot. Photograph. Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIM-104_Patriot>
• Minuteman III Missile. Photograph. Air Force Reserve Command Space Asset Media GalleryWeb.
<http://www.afrc.af.mil/shared/media/ggallery/hires/afg_021221_001.jpg>.
• Space Rocket Launch Sites Around the World. Photograph. Space Today OnlineWeb.
<http://www.spacetoday.org/Rockets/Spaceports/LaunchSites.html>.
• Spinning Asteroid 4. Photograph. Web. <http://media.photobucket.com/user/zorq1/media/Spinning-asteroid-3.gif.html>.
• "United States, Russia Sign Agreement to Further Research and Development Collaboration in Nuclear Energy and Security." 16 Sep
2013: n. page. Web. 17 Dec. 2013. <http://energy.gov/articles/united-states-russia-sign-agreement-further-research-anddevelopment-collaboration-nuclear>.
• 1 Wie, B., & Dearborn, D. (2010, February). Earth-Impact Modeling and Analysis of a Near-Earth Object Fragmented and Dispersed by Nuclear Subsurface Explosions. In 20th AAS/AIAA Space Flight Mechanics Meeting (Vol. 10, p. 137).
<http://wordpress.engineering.iastate.edu/adrc/files/2012/09/AAS-10-137.pdf>
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