Aerospace technologies in the development

of

asteroid detection and deflection.

Lev Ilin

COMM 1155 – Applied Writing

Chris Cudahy

October 1, 2021

Works Sited

[1] Martin Elvis, "Asteroids, How Love, Fear, and Greed Will Determine Our Future in Space",

Yale University Press. June 08 2021

[2] David J. Eicher, “Why the asteroid threat should be taken seriously”, Astronomy

Magazine, NASA/JPL. Cambridge University Press, 2015.

[3] Jennifer Chu, “How to deflect an asteroid MIT engineers devise a decision map to identify

the best mission type to deflect an incoming asteroid,” MIT News, 18 February 2020. [Online].

Available: https://news.mit.edu/2020/how-deflect-asteroid-mission-0219.
 Now the 21st century is already here and our technologies began to step

forward with leaps and bounds each new decade. What was fantastic in the 40s

was realized in 80 and something that was not even thought of in then appeared

in early 2000. Now it is 2021 and new technologies are constantly being

updated in various areas to improve our lives, so it is the right time to think

about more global problem such as space hazards and their solution.

One of the realy dangerous problems that can come from space is

asteroids. Our planet throughout its existence, collided with asteroids of various

sizes and the consequences varied , from minor to full-scale cataclysms. Now,

even a nearby meteorite or other large space object

can greatly harm humanity, since earth satellites and space stations are located

in the thermosphere. The chance of such a catastrophe is rather small - 1 in

10,000 - but after thousands or millions of years, serious collisions will occur

sooner or later, and the possible chance of a cataclysm cannot be ruled out.

Ancient craters on the Earth's surface prove that large objects have hit the Earth

in the past, and there is no doubt that this will not continue in the future

(https://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/back2.html).

Here is the good example, according to MIT NEWS, on April 13, 2029,

an ice piece of space rock, wider than the height of the Eiffel Tower, will fly

past the Earth at a speed of 30 kilometers per second, touching the sphere of the
planet's geostationary satellites (https://news.mit.edu/2020/how-deflect-

asteroid-mission-0219). This will be the closest approach of one of the largest

asteroids to cross Earth's orbit in the next decade.

In current days, humanity does not have the technology to deflect an

approaching asteroid, even a small or slow one, even if we had a 5 to 10 year

warning. The deadliest strikers are long-period and hyperbolic comets

(https://www.britannica.com/science/long-period-comet).

They appear from outside the solar system without warning and approach at

great speed. Even if such a comet had been spotted earlier, we would only have

about twelve months to reject it, because it takes around that time to travel

through the solar system.

One of the simplest, most likely effective technologies for reflecting a space

object aimed at the earth is the launch of a projectile that will collide with this

object and redirect its trajectory thanks to kinetic energy. This technology was

demonstrated in the 1998 film Armageddon, but there it collapsed due to

imperfections. NASA is currently working on a similar project called DART

and tests will be carried out soon. "DART will be the first NASA mission to

demonstrate a so-called kinetic impact technique - striking an asteroid to

displace its orbit - to protect against a potential future asteroid collision, this

approval step propels the project towards a historic test with a safe small

asteroid." said Lindley Johnson, planetary protection officer at NASA

headquarters in Washington (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-first-asteroid-

deflection-mission-enters-next-design-phase).

The target of “DART” is the asteroid “Didymos”, which in Greek means

“twin,” because it is a binary asteroid system of two bodies, which will

approach Earth remotely in October 2022 and then again in 2024. Once

launched, DART will fly to Didymos and use an on-board autonomous targeting

system to target Didymos B. The refrigerator-sized spacecraft will hit the

smaller body about nine times faster than a bullet, at about 3.7 miles per second.

Earth observatories can see the impact and orbital changes of Didymos B

around Didymos A, allowing impact scientists to better identify kinetic

capabilities as a mitigation strategy for asteroid impacts

(https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/dart). The kinetic impact technique

works by changing the speed of the transmitting asteroid by a small fraction of

its total speed, but it does so long before the predicted impact, so that this small

shock over time leads to a large lateral displacement of the asteroid's trajectory.

“DART is an important step in demonstrating that we can protect our

planet from a future asteroid impact,” said Andy Cheng of the Johns Hopkins

Applied Physics Laboratory in Lorel, Maryland, and co-leader of the DART

study (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-s-first-asteroid-deflection-mission-

enters-next-design-phase).
 Summing up, we found out that humanity is developing by leaps and

bounds and our technologies are already going beyond the borders of our home

on Earth, but they require many improvements and numerous studies, especially

in the field of space technologies to ensure the safety of the earth from the

outside. Sooner or later we will be able to create something that can save the

planet from a cataclysm, but the main question is - whether we have enough

time?