Geological Society of America

T19 Active and Anticipated Science from Planetary Science Research, Programs and Future Flight Projects

Sunday, 22 September 2024
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
213A

HYPERVELOCITY ASTEROID INTERCEPTION AND DISRUPTION FOR PLANETARY DEFENSE

Paper number: T19-9
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 10:00 AM – 10:15 AM

Authors

Brin Bailey Presenting Author
University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA
Philip Lubin
University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA
Alexander N. Cohen
University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA
Darrel Robertson
NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA
Mark Boslough
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Sasha Egan
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, NM
Elizabeth A. Silber
Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM
Ruitao Xu
University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA

Abstract

Pulverize It (PI) is a NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase II study for planetary defense which is intended to operate in both short warning and extended interdiction modes, representing a unique multi-modal approach to threat mitigation. The method utilizes high aspect ratio, high density hypervelocity impactors to penetrate an incoming asteroid. In extended warning scenarios in which the asteroid is far from Earth, PI can be used for either robust disruption via fragmentation or enhanced deflection of the threat. In short-warning scenarios, PI can be used in a terminal mode to disrupt an incoming asteroid into small fragments (<10 m diameter). The fragment cloud would then intercept Earth, resulting in a series of high-altitude airburst events with spatial and temporal spread, yielding ground-level optical pulses and de-correlated shock waves which distribute the energy of the parent asteroid. We utilize a variety of simulation methods to investigate the hypervelocity interception and mitigation of various asteroid models in both extended warning and short warning (terminal) scenarios. Our simulations support the proposition that PI is an effective multi-modal approach for planetary defense, yielding robust asteroid disruption and ground effects which are vastly less damaging in comparison to unmitigated cases.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 56, No. 5

doi: 10.1130/abs/2024AM-402391

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