PI -- Multimodal Planetary Defense

Fuente: arXiv
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Autor principal: Lubin, Philip
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2021
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author Lubin, Philip
author_facet Lubin, Philip
contents We present a practical and effective method of planetary defense that allows for extremely short mitigation time scales if required as well as long time scale mitigation. This one system allows for virtually any required defense mode. In general, it uses much less launch mass with vastly shorter required response time than classical deflection techniques The method uses an array of small hypervelocity kinetic penetrators that pulverize and disassemble an asteroid or small comet. This approach works in both long warning time, as well as in short warning scenarios with intercepts of minutes to days before impact. In longer time intercept scenarios, the disassembled asteroid fragments largely miss the Earth. In short intercept scenarios, the asteroid fragments of maximum $\sim$10-meter diameter allow the Earth's atmosphere to act as a "beam dump" with fragment burn up and/or air burst, with the primary channel of energy going into spatially and temporally de-correlated shock waves. The effectiveness of the approach depends on the intercept time and size of the asteroid but allows for effective defense against asteroids in the 20-1000m diameter class and could virtually eliminate the threat. A 20m diameter asteroid ($\sim$0.5Mt, similar to Chelyabinsk) can be mitigated with a 100s prior to impact intercept with a 10m/s disruption. With ~1m/s internal disruption, a 5 hour prior to impact intercept of a 50m diameter asteroid ($\sim$10Mt yield, similar to Tunguska), a 1 day prior to impact intercept of 100m diameter asteroid ($\sim$100Mt yield), a 20 day prior to impact intercept of Apophis ($\sim$370m diameter, $\sim$4Gt yield). The use of active (explosive) penetrators including nuclear allows the same system to mitigate extremely large threats. A "single launcher" solution to planetary defense using existing launch vehicles that achieve positive C3 becomes a viable option.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2110_07559
institution arXiv
publishDate 2021
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle PI -- Multimodal Planetary Defense
Lubin, Philip
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Physics and Society
Space Physics
We present a practical and effective method of planetary defense that allows for extremely short mitigation time scales if required as well as long time scale mitigation. This one system allows for virtually any required defense mode. In general, it uses much less launch mass with vastly shorter required response time than classical deflection techniques The method uses an array of small hypervelocity kinetic penetrators that pulverize and disassemble an asteroid or small comet. This approach works in both long warning time, as well as in short warning scenarios with intercepts of minutes to days before impact. In longer time intercept scenarios, the disassembled asteroid fragments largely miss the Earth. In short intercept scenarios, the asteroid fragments of maximum $\sim$10-meter diameter allow the Earth's atmosphere to act as a "beam dump" with fragment burn up and/or air burst, with the primary channel of energy going into spatially and temporally de-correlated shock waves. The effectiveness of the approach depends on the intercept time and size of the asteroid but allows for effective defense against asteroids in the 20-1000m diameter class and could virtually eliminate the threat. A 20m diameter asteroid ($\sim$0.5Mt, similar to Chelyabinsk) can be mitigated with a 100s prior to impact intercept with a 10m/s disruption. With ~1m/s internal disruption, a 5 hour prior to impact intercept of a 50m diameter asteroid ($\sim$10Mt yield, similar to Tunguska), a 1 day prior to impact intercept of 100m diameter asteroid ($\sim$100Mt yield), a 20 day prior to impact intercept of Apophis ($\sim$370m diameter, $\sim$4Gt yield). The use of active (explosive) penetrators including nuclear allows the same system to mitigate extremely large threats. A "single launcher" solution to planetary defense using existing launch vehicles that achieve positive C3 becomes a viable option.
title PI -- Multimodal Planetary Defense
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Physics and Society
Space Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.07559