Abstract This paper aims to investigate the ballistic kinetic impactor (B-KI) in order to mitigate the risks posed by a potential asteroid collision on Earth in the future. The B-KI is a spacecraft that employs a single impulsive thrust to put the spacecraft into an orbit, which, in turn, impacts the target asteroid to deflect it from the collision route of Earth. To evaluate the effectiveness of the B-KI, we introduce impact-geometry maps (IGMs), which visualize the achievable change in the orbital energy of the asteroid as a function of the spacecraft’s semi-major axis and eccentricity. The achievable performance of the B-KI is investigated in the form of its mobility capability on the IGM. In addition, parameters that govern the mission’s feasibility, such as the spacecraft’s relative impact speed and phase angle, are discussed. We conducted a parametric study on the asteroid’s orbital elements and found that the B-KI is, in fact, a better option for deflecting asteroids belonging to the Aten family at the intersection point where the radial velocity component is positive. We also designed several fictional B-KI missions to achieve a more realistic asteroid mitigation campaign scenario. The obtained results are compared with those of previous kinetic impactor studies that employ low-continuous-propulsion systems. The study finally highlights that the B-KI can efficiently increase the impact efficiency and deflection distance for a part of the target asteroids.

    Highlights Asteroids with unacceptable Earth collision risk should be deflected. The ballistic kinetic impactor is a spacecraft that employs a single impulsive thrust. Spacecraft is put into an orbit to impact against an asteroid to deflect it. Even the ballistic kinetic impactor, a part of asteroids can be well deflected. A combination of ballistic and low-thrust kinetic impactor can be more effective.


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    Titel :

    Study on ballistic kinetic impactor mission design and evaluation using impact-geometry maps


    Beteiligte:
    Yamaguchi, Kohei (Autor:in) / Gu, Xinbo (Autor:in) / Inamori, Takaya (Autor:in) / Kimura, Kahaku (Autor:in) / Sakurai, Yuto (Autor:in)

    Erschienen in:

    Acta Astronautica ; 181 ; 336-351


    Erscheinungsdatum :

    2021-01-18


    Format / Umfang :

    16 pages




    Medientyp :

    Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)


    Format :

    Elektronische Ressource


    Sprache :

    Englisch




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