Abstract The risk of an impact between a large asteroid and the Earth has been significant enough to attract the attention of many researchers. This paper focuses on a mitigation technique that involves the use of a long tether and ballast mass to divert an asteroid. When such a tether is modeled as massless and inelastic, results show that the method may be viable for diverting asteroids away from a collision with the Earth; the next step towards demonstrating the viability of the approach is to conduct a study which uses a more realistic tether model. This paper presents such a study, in which the tether models include tether mass and elasticity. These models verify that a tether–ballast system is capable of diverting Earth-threatening asteroids. Detailed parametric studies are presented which illustrate how system performance depends on tether mass and elasticity. Also, case studies are presented which show how more realistic models can aid in the design of tether–ballast asteroid mitigation systems. Key findings include the dangers imposed by periods during which the tether goes slack and ways to preclude this.

    Highlights This paper presents an asteroid mitigation technique involving the use of long tether and ballast. When tether is modeled as massless and inelastic, the results indicate technique can work. This paper presents a study in which more realistic tether models are used. These more realistic models verify that a tether–ballast system can be effective in mitigation. Case studies illustrate how realistic models can aid in the design of a tether–ballast system.


    Zugriff

    Zugriff prüfen

    Verfügbarkeit in meiner Bibliothek prüfen

    Bestellung bei Subito €


    Exportieren, teilen und zitieren



    Titel :

    Modeling tether–ballast asteroid diversion systems, including tether mass and elasticity


    Beteiligte:

    Erschienen in:

    Acta Astronautica ; 103 ; 282-306


    Erscheinungsdatum :

    2014-04-16


    Format / Umfang :

    25 pages




    Medientyp :

    Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)


    Format :

    Elektronische Ressource


    Sprache :

    Englisch





    Asteroid Diversion Using a Long Tether and Ballast

    French, D.B. | Online Contents | 2009


    Trajectory Diversion of an Earth-Threatening Asteroid via Massive Tether-Ballast System

    French, D. / Mazzoleni, A. / American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2009