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Planetary Defense exercise uses Apophis as Hazardous Asteroid Stand-In
https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Plan … n_999.html
Watching the skies for large asteroids that could pose a hazard to the Earth is a global endeavor. So, to test their operational readiness, the international planetary defense community will sometimes use a real asteroid's close approach as a mock encounter with a "new" potentially hazardous asteroid. The lessons learned could limit, or even prevent, global devastation should the scenario play out for real in the future.
To that end, more than 100 astronomers from around the world participated in an exercise last year in which a large, known, and potentially hazardous asteroid was essentially removed from the planetary defense-monitoring database to see whether it could be properly detected anew. Not only was the object "discovered" during the exercise, its chances of hitting Earth were continually reassessed as it was tracked, and the possibility of impact was ruled out.
"This real-world scientific input stress-tested the entire planetary defense response chain, from initial detection to orbit determination to measuring the asteroid's physical characteristics and even determining if, and where, it might hit Earth," said Vishnu Reddy, associate professor at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in Tucson, who led the campaign.
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China is getting serious about planetary defense
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This near earth asteroid appears to be a carbonaceous condrite.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/(341843)_2008_EV5
Aphelion: 1.0383 AU; Perihelion: 0.8783 AU; Semi-major axis: 0.9583 AU
Diameter ~400m.
The orbital characteristics indicate that relatively little dV will be required to reach the asteroid following Earth escape. With negligible gravity, orbital insertion and landing will require very little propellant, all of it can be low thrust. The carbonaceous materials include substantial carbon, which can be used for life support and ore reduction. There may also be hydrogen and amino acids.
Collectively, this suggests that this asteroid may be a promising destination for human settlement. It provides raw materials for construction and life support. It's orbit allows solar power slightly greater than Earth in support of food production and industrial energy. In such low gravity conditions, it will be easy to sustain power 100% of time.
The asteroid volume is 38 million cubic metres. This suggest a total mass of at least 30 million tonnes. This is sufficient for a multi-decade space manufacturing programme.
Ps. This asteroid appears to be a fast rotator and this effect has given it a distorted top like appearance. With a long kevlar cable, we can tap the asteroid's own rotational energy to provide a large part of the dV needed to put a spacecraft on Earth return trajectory. At the asteroid surface, rotational velocity is 0.1m/s. However, at the end of a cable 1000km long, the velocity at the same rotation rate will be 500m/s. A kevlar cable 1000km long and 1cm in diameter would weigh about 100 tonnes.
Earth orbital insertion will need a high thrust propellant burn to reduce the velocity resulting from entering Earth's gravity well. However, all other propulsive dV to and from the asteroid should be achievable using low thrust high-ISP electric propulsion. A mass driver could use asteroid regolith as propellant and eventually, crushed silicate wastes from space manufacturing operations.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_driver
With the development of Starship with it's 100te to LEO lift capabilities (with the 1000te to LEO Starship 2 on the drawing board), mass driver tugs could be lifted into orbit. Human settlement of a NEA like this can be accomplished with less technical development and at lower cost than any proposed settlement of Mars. This is a project that could be undertaken very soon, if there were sufficient interest.
Last edited by Calliban (2022-06-12 07:06:32)
"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."
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Hi Caliban,
I noticed your post. I am not trying to "Topper" you.
I am now interested in Earth Trojans, and turning NEO's into more of them if that is possible.
Index» Terraformation» Worlds, and World Engine type terraform stuff.
I am working on post #304.
Since I am going to deviate from the core topic here, I will end my post.
But thanks for the alert on this NEO. Very interesting.
Done.
Last edited by Void (2022-06-12 10:41:48)
Done.
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Gaia has observed over 150K asteroids in our solar system
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Impact in 2052 ruled out as ESA counts down to Asteroid Day
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Looks like Hera, will be a follow on from NASA's DART mission
Hera space mission at the European Space Agency in its Space Safety program, which objective is to contribute to validate the kinetic impact method to possibly deviate a near-Earth asteroid in a colliding trajectory with Earth.
Patrick MICHEL on how HeraMission will protect us from Dimorphos asteroid.
https://twitter.com/iafastro/status/1572201771434475520
Stay tuned 26 September to find out what Dimorphos looks like!!
“It's vital for mission success that there are no coverage gaps in DART’s terminal phase. Antennas around the world will work in unison, backing each other up & filling gaps in the NASA DSN” – Daniel Firre, ESA’s DART Service Manager.
https://twitter.com/esaoperations/statu … 0698847233
"– we can't lose DART for a moment."
LICIACube, the Light Italian Cubesat for Imaging of Asteroids which was riding along with DART successfully conducted the first of 3 orbital maneuvers over Canberra's DSS43.
https://twitter.com/nascom1/status/1571281347968405504
Think of it as making its way to the best seat in the house for the upcoming DART vs Dimorphos fight
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ESA is Building an Early Warning System for Dangerous Asteroids
https://www.universetoday.com/160181/es … asteroids/
The European Space Agency is working on a new mission that would act as an early warning system for dangerous, hard-to-see asteroids. Called NEOMIR (Near-Earth Object Mission in the InfraRed), the spacecraft would orbit between the Earth and the Sun at the L1 Lagrange Point, finding space rocks that otherwise get lost in the glare of the Sun.
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Stopping a risk from PHAs those Potentially Hazardous Asteroids
Researchers find asteroid redirection a viable possibility for planetary defense
https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Rese … e_999.html
Redirecting near-Earth objects like asteroids before they impact the planet is a viable possibility, according to new research published Wednesday.
Conducted last September, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test proved to be more successful than anticipated, according to the research published in the journal Nature.
In October, NASA confirmed the DART mission successfully altered the orbit of the asteroid Dimorphos, which orbits the larger Didymos asteroid.
That marked the first full-scale demonstration of asteroid deflection technology. Neither celestial body represented a threat to Earth.
"We can't stop hurricanes or earthquakes yet, but we ultimately learned that we can prevent an asteroid impact with sufficient time, warning and resources," University of Maryland astronomy professor and DART member Derek Richardson said in a release.
"With sufficient time, a relatively small change in an asteroid's orbit would cause it to miss the Earth, preventing large-scale destruction from occurring on our planet."
The findings confirm the feasibility of redirecting near-Earth objects as part of a planetary defense initiative.
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China plans Tianwen-2 mission for asteroid sampling
https://english.news.cn/20230303/cd1eff … 00a/c.html
The scheduled Tianwen-2 mission will sample an asteroid called 2016 HO3, return to Earth, and then head out again to a main-belt comet 311P.
The China National Space Administration revealed the plan in a notice on Thursday, saying that the mission has obtained official approval, and scientists will hold an academic seminar about Tianwen-2 scientific exploration and its data processing technologies in April.
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Astronomers Prepare for the Next Thousand Years of Hazardous Asteroid Impacts
https://www.universetoday.com/161294/as … asteroids/
It is as inevitable as the rising of the Sun and the turning of the tides. Someday another large rock from space will crash into the Earth. It has happened for billions of years in the past and will continue to happen for billions of years into the future. So far humanity has been lucky, as we have not had to face such a catastrophic threat. But if we are to survive on this planet for the long term, we will have to come to terms with the reality of hazardous asteroids and prepare ourselves.
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'Can’t wait to land on Dimorphos'
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Asteroid Displays Unexpected Behavior in Wake of NASA’s DART Strike
https://gizmodo.com/nasa-dart-asteroid- … 1850829947
Dimorphos continues to puzzle scientists after NASA’s DART impact
NASA removed Janus mission from the Psyche mission’s 2023 launch manifest after an assessment determined that Janus would not be on the required trajectory to meet its science requirements
a little more distant
Lucy's first asteroid target, Dinkinesh
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/20 … -dinkinesh
Test model of the DESTINY+ Dust Analyzer on its way to Japan
https://www.uni-stuttgart.de/en/univers … -to-Japan/
Everything is coming together for launch of NASA’s mission to a metal asteroid
https://arstechnica.com/space/2023/08/e … -asteroid/
"This is how the spacecraft will get mounted onto the interface to the Falcon Heavy.”
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