Asteroid diversion considerations and comparisons of diversion techniques

Journal Article · Tue May 19 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Procedia Engineering

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.04.061· OSTI ID:1201661

Owen, J. Michael ^[1]; Miller, Paul ^[1]; Rovny, Jared ^[2]; Wasem, Joe ^[1]; Howley, Kirsten ^[1]; Herbold, Eric B. ^[1]

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1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
2. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States)

The threat of asteroid impacts on Earth poses a low-probability but high consequence risk, with possible outcomes ranging from regional to global catastrophe. However, unique amongst such global threats we have the capability of averting such disasters. Diversion approaches by either kinetic impactor or nuclear energy deposition are the two most practical technologies for mitigating hazardous near Earth asteroids. One of the greatest challenges in understanding our options is the uncertain response of asteroids to such impulsive techniques, due both to our lack of knowledge of the composition and structure of these objects as well as their highly varied nature. Predicting whether we will simply divert or break up a given object is a crucial: the weak self-gravity and inferred weak structure of typical asteroids present the strong possibility the body will fragment for modest impulses. Predictive modeling of failure and fragmentation is one important tool for such studies. In this paper we apply advances in modeling failure and fracture using Adaptive Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (ASPH) to understand mega-cratering on asteroids as a validation exercise, and show examples of diverting the near Earth asteroid Bennu using both a kinetic impactor and ablative blow-off due to nuclear energy deposition.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• OSTI ID: 1201661
• Journal Information: Procedia Engineering, Vol. 103, Issue C; ISSN 1877-7058
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
asteroid
hazard mitigation
simulations
failure and fracture modeling