• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Planetary Defense (Against Asteroids)

ramonmercado

CyberPunk
Joined
Aug 19, 2003
Messages
58,109
Location
Eblana
System would destroy asteroids that threaten Earth
February 15th, 2013 in Space & Earth / Space Exploration

As an asteroid roughly half as large as a football field—and with energy equal to a large hydrogen bomb—readies for a fly-by of Earth on Friday, two California scientists are unveiling their proposal for a system that could eliminate a threat of this size in an hour. The same system could destroy asteroids 10 times larger than the one known as 2012 DA14 in about a year, with evaporation starting at a distance as far away as the Sun.

UC Santa Barbara physicist and professor Philip M. Lubin, and Gary B. Hughes, a researcher and professor from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, conceived DE-STAR, or Directed Energy Solar Targeting of Asteroids an exploRation, as a realistic means of mitigating potential threats posed to the Earth by asteroids and comets.

"We have to come to grips with discussing these issues in a logical and rational way," said Lubin, who began work on DE-STAR a year ago. "We need to be proactive rather than reactive in dealing with threats. Duck and cover is not an option. We can actually do something about it and it's credible to do something. So let's begin along this path. Let's start small and work our way up. There is no need to break the bank to start."

Described as a "directed energy orbital defense system," DE-STAR is designed to harness some of the power of the sun and convert it into a massive phased array of laser beams that can destroy, or evaporate, asteroids posing a potential threat to Earth. It is equally capable of changing an asteroid's orbit –– deflecting it away from Earth, or into the Sun –– and may also prove to be a valuable tool for assessing an asteroid's composition, enabling lucrative, rare-element mining. And it's entirely based on current essential technology.

"This system is not some far-out idea from Star Trek," Hughes said. "All the components of this system pretty much exist today. Maybe not quite at the scale that we'd need—scaling up would be the challenge—but the basic elements are all there and ready to go. We just need to put them into a larger system to be effective, and once the system is there, it can do so many things."

The same system has a number of other uses, including aiding in planetary exploration.

In developing the proposal, Lubin and Hughes calculated the requirements and possibilities for DE-STAR systems of several sizes, ranging from a desktop device to one measuring 10 kilometers, or six miles, in diameter. Larger systems were also considered. The larger the system, the greater its capabilities.

For instance, DE-STAR 2—at 100 meters in diameter, about the size of the International Space Station—"could start nudging comets or asteroids out of their orbits," Hughes said. But DE-STAR 4—at 10 kilometers in diameter, about 100 times the size of the ISS –– could deliver 1.4 megatons of energy per day to its target, said Lubin, obliterating an asteroid 500 meters across in one year.

The speed of interplanetary travel—far beyond what is possible with chemical propellant rockets used today—could be increased with this sized system, according to Lubin. It could also power advanced ion drive systems for deep space travel, he said. Able to engage multiple targets and missions at once, DE-STAR 4 "could simultaneously evaporate an asteroid, determine the composition of another, and propel a spacecraft."

Larger still, DE-STAR 6 could enable interstellar travel by functioning as a massive, orbiting power source and propulsion system for spacecraft. It could propel a 10-ton spacecraft at near the speed of light, allowing interstellar exploration to become a reality without waiting for science fiction technology such as "warp drive" to come along, Lubin said.

"Our proposal assumes a combination of baseline technology—where we are today—and where we almost certainly will be in the future, without asking for any miracles," he explained. "We've really tried to temper this with a realistic view of what we can do, and we approached it from that point of view. It does require very careful attention to a number of details, and it does require a will to do so, but it does not require a miracle."

Recent and rapid developments in highly efficient conversion of electrical power to light allow such a scenario now, Lubin said, when just 20 years ago it would not have been realistic to consider.

"These are not just back-of-the-envelope numbers," Hughes concurred. "They are actually based on detailed analysis, through solid calculations, justifying what is possible. And it's all available under current theory and current technology.

"There are large asteroids and comets that cross the Earth's orbit, and some very dangerous ones going to hit the Earth eventually," he added. "Many have hit in the past and many will hit in the future. We should feel compelled to do something about the risk. Realistic solutions need to be considered, and this is definitely one of those."

Provided by University of California - Santa Barbara

"System would destroy asteroids that threaten Earth." February 15th, 2013. http://phys.org/news/2013-02-asteroids- ... earth.html
http://phys.org/news/2013-02-asteroids- ... earth.html
 
B612 is pushing its Sentinel telescope concept as a way to better quantify and mitigate the risks.
Projected to be ready for launch in 2018 and costing some $250m, the venture is being funded privately through donation.
The observatory would be sited in a Venus-like orbit, looking out towards Earth.
This would help pick up those inner-Solar-System rocks that go unseen by current telescopes at Earth because they are hidden in the glare of the Sun.

Sentinel would also operate in the infrared - the best part of the spectrum to go look for dark grey asteroids.
Previous surveys have suggested that we have probably found a little over 90% of the true monsters out there - the objects that could lead to extinction if they struck the Earth. And the good news is that none look like they will hit us anytime soon.

But data from Nasa's Wise telescope suggests that the population of objects in the 100-1,000m size range may number close to 20,000, and the vast majority of these have yet to be identified and tracked.
Time is precious in this business. The sooner an Earth-bound rock is detected, the easier it is to deal with it.

...

"Picture trying to spot something that's only the size of a small apartment building, that's tens of millions of miles from Earth, and that's black against a black background. That's incredibly hard. That's what requires the technological advances of Sentinel."

- Sentinel would track 90% of Earth-orbit-crossing asteroids larger than 100m, and 50% of the 30m rocks
- Its observation orbit would be close to that of Venus; it would lap the Earth every 2.2 years
- B612 says it would give years/decades of notice before any potential impacts with Planet Earth

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27039285

Diagrams on page.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Leading astronomers and scientists, including evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and physicist Brian Cox, have called for more to be done to prevent a devastating asteroid strike.

One hundred leading names, including cosmonauts and astronauts, the Astronomer Royal and rock guitarist Brian May, have made a declaration demanding action.

They have called for a rapid 100-fold increase in the discovery and tracking of near-Earth asteroids to 100,000 a year within a decade. There are a million asteroids in the Solar System with the potential to strike Earth, they said, but only 10,000 have been discovered. ...

http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/expe ... 01027.html
 
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/pdc15/

A Near Earth Object Project symposium, practising what the practical steps would be in the event of The End Of The World As We Know It (including, presumably, Bruce Willis and Elijah Wood). It was an opportunity for heavy rock fans to look to the stars with with expectant eyes, but not to tempt fate or fall. This was no rain dance, more of a white-coated "what if".

"This webpage does not describe a real potential asteroid impact. The information on this page is fictional and provided only to support an emergency response exercise conducted during the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) 2015 Planetary Defense Conference in Frascati, Italy, April 13-17, 2015. This is only an exercise."

spacer.gif

spacer.gif
spacer.gif
spacer.gif

spacer.gif
2015 IAA Planetary Defense Conference (PDC), to be held April 13 - 17, 2015 in Frascati, Italy, a hypothetical asteroid impact scenario will be presented and used as a basis for discussion. NOTE: Although this scenario is realistic in many ways, it is completely fictional and does NOT describe a real potential asteroid impact. The scenario begins as follows:

  • The asteroid is discovered on April 13, 2015, the first day of the conference, at magnitude 20.9, declination -39 degrees and heading south. It is assigned the designation "2015 PDC" by the Minor Planet Center, and classified as a Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) based on its orbit. (To reinforce the fact that this is not a real asteroid, we are using three letters in the designation, something which would never be done for an actual asteroid.)
So rest easy, folks. If it gets spotted, you'll know it's not for real if it's got a Three Letter Acronym, like for 'ELE' in the movie.

And of course, unlike every disaster movie made since Hollywood began, the Government wouldn't keep it a secret from us, in reality. Probably.
 
So rest easy, folks. If it gets spotted, you'll know it's not for real if it's got a Three Letter Acronym, like for 'ELE' in the movie.
The ability to delegate things into non-existence based on nomenclature. :p
 
And of course, unlike every disaster movie made since Hollywood began, the Government wouldn't keep it a secret from us, in reality. Probably.
We often get told about the passing of some of these objects after they have safely gone past.
Like mushrooms, we are kept in the dark and fed on sh*t.
 
Well spotted! ;)
 
We really need to get started on that planetary defense program though. First the Chelyabinsk meteor, now one that looks like a human skull. What are we waiting for, an asteroid with the words "I'm gonna kill y'all!" written across it?
 
Potentially hazardous asteroids are still looming large in the minds of scientists engaged in planetary defense issues. Numerous strategies describing deflection of near-Earth objects (NEOs) have been proposed, including methods employing kinetic impactors, robotic mining, and gravity tractors. However, one of the concepts has recently received attention as one of the most serious proposals.

The project, named DE-STAR (Directed Energy System for Targeting of Asteroids and exploRation), envisions a large phased-array laser in Earth orbit to deflect asteroids, comets, and other NEOs endangering the planet. There is also a much smaller, though similar system being considered, called DE-STARLITE, that could travel alongside the target, slowly deflecting it from nearby over a long period.

According to the authors of these proposals, their goal was to create an orbital planetary defense system capable of heating the surface of potentially hazardous objects to the point of vaporization. They emphasize that vaporization on the surface of an object continually ejects vaporized material, creating a reactionary force that pushes the object into a new path. This can be accomplished by lasers deployed on spacecraft stationed near the asteroid.

The system should be capable of projecting a laser at a distant asteroid with sufficient flux to heat a spot on the surface and vaporize solid rock. Currently, high-powered lasers deliver sufficient energy density to melt and vaporize any known material. ...

http://phys.org/news/2016-03-laser-weapon-earth-killer-asteroids.html
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jim
Scientists develop mini Death Star to protect us from asteroids
American researchers believe laser beam could be used to deflect space rocks on collision course with planet Earth
By Rob Crilly, New York
11:01PM GMT 03 Mar 2016

It sounds like a weapon straight out of Star Wars. Imagine the Death Star's superlaser used not to destroy worlds but to protect our own from approaching asteroids.
That is the concept being developed by American researchers who believe they have found a way to use a high-power laser beam to deflect space rocks that are on course to hit Earth.

The idea has been around for years but the team at the University of California say laboratory tests show their De-Star - or Directed Energy System for Targeting of Asteroids and exploRation – could actually work.
They envisage putting an unmanned De-Star craft in orbit. At the first sign of a impending disaster it would target the asteroid with a high-energy laser, causing part of the rock to vaporise in a process known as sublimation.
That ejection of gas would then create sufficient force to alter the course of the rock.

Qicheng Zhang of the University of California, Santa Barbara, one of the authors of the project, told Astrowatch.net: “Generally speaking, the technology is available today.
“The main challenge with building a full De-Star is the necessary scale to be effective.”

They have tested the technique on earth, by blasting a piece of basalt – an igneous rock similar in composition to some asteroids.
The technique was tested by directing a laser onto basalt - which has a composition similar to asteroids.
They found that when it glowed white-hot, it began to lose mass.

Travis Brashears, a student who has worked with the group, said last year: “What happens is a process called sublimation or vaporisation, which turns a solid or liquid into a gas.
“That gas causes a plume cloud — mass ejection — which generates an opposite and equal reaction or thrust — and that’s what we measure.”

They managed to use the effect to slow and the reverse the rotation of a spinning piece of basalt.
The forces involved mean the team needs plenty of warning of impending doom. They estimate they could use a 10 kW laser – less powerful than some used by the US military, for example – to deflect a 100m wide asteroid over a period of 30 years.

At the same time, they are working on a smaller version that could fly alongside asteroids, acting as a last line of defence if there was less of a warning.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/sci...-Death-Star-to-protect-us-from-asteroids.html
 
  • Like
Reactions: Doc
It's a great excuse to put a doomsday machine in orbit, where it can be used against any enemy.
 
De-star? Don't be too proud of this technological terror. The ability to deflect an asteroid is insignificant next to the power of the Force.
 
Never fear: NASA & FEMA are prepared!

Incoming! How NASA and FEMA Would Respond to an Asteroid Threat
By Sarah Lewin, Staff Writer | November 4, 2016 08:22 pm ET

It's a scary scenario: an asteroid headed for Earth, just four years away from slamming into our home planet. It may be too short a span to plan an asteroid-deflection mission, but it's long enough to present very different challenges from those of a more typical crisis, like a hurricane or earthquake.

NASA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) came together Oct. 25 to plan a response to such a hypothetical event. In a "tabletop exercise," a kind of ongoing simulation, the two agencies tested how they would work together to evaluate the threat, prevent panic and protect as many people as possible from the deadly collision.

"It's not a matter of if, but when, we will deal with such a situation," Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA's Science Mission Directorate's new associate administrator, said in a statement. "But unlike any other time in our history, we now have the ability to respond to an impact threat through continued observations, predictions, response planning and mitigation." [In Images: Potentially Dangerous Near-Earth Asteroids]

The exercise, held in El Segundo, California, brought together representatives from NASA, FEMA, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the Department of Energy's national laboratories, the Air Force and the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services, JPL officials said in the statement.

It was the third such exercise; previous ones had allowed for a deflection mission, but in this simulation, there was too little time for that type of response.

"It is critical to exercise these kinds of low-probability but high-consequence disaster scenarios," FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said in the statement. "By working through our emergency response plans now, we will be better prepared if and when we need to respond to such an event."

The asteroid in this test scenario appeared to be between 300 and 800 feet (100 to 250 meters) long in the first simulated measurements the participants were given. At first, the probability of a 2020 impact was only 2 percent, but as the group continued to simulate tracking it over time and the fictional months went by, the impact probability rose to 65 percent — and then 100 percent, in May 2017. By November of that year, in the scenario, they found that it would hit across Southern California or nearby in the Pacific Ocean. ...

http://www.space.com/34629-nasa-fem..._medium=social&utm_campaign=2016twitterdlvrit
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jim
dart.jpg

  1. INDYTech
Nasa to send asteroid away from Earth by firing a bullet at it in attempt to save the Earth from future strikes
Artist concept of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft / NASA/JHUAP
The missile will be about the size of a fridge
Andrew Griffin

Nasa is going to fire a bullet at an asteroid in an attempt to save the Earth.

The agency has laid out the plans for its DART mission – where it will send a space capsule the size of a fridge towards an asteroid to shoot it off course. For now, the mission is just a test, but in the future it could be used to save Earth from what scientists say is an underappreciated threat from asteroids.

The mission has now been approved by Nasa and will move into the preliminary design phase, getting ready for testing in a few years.
“DART would be NASA’s first mission to demonstrate what’s known as the kinetic impactor technique – striking the asteroid to shift its orbit – to defend against a potential future asteroid impact,” said Lindley Johnson, planetary defense officer at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This approval step advances the project toward an historic test with a non-threatening small asteroid.”

DART's target is an asteroid that will pass by Earth in 2022, and come back two years later. More specifically, it's actually two asteroids: a binary system called Didymos B made up of a larger and a smaller rock.
It's the smaller one that Nasa will try and knock off course. But by using a binary system, scientists will be able to check with more accuracy how well their test has worked.

etc...

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...impact-protect-earth-armageddon-a7829651.html
 
Similarly, what if there's some kind of billiards effect and the small asteroid which NASA shoots at goes on to hit a larger asteroid which knocks an even larger one off course ..... which then heads straight for Earth? ;)
 
Similarly, what if there's some kind of billiards effect and the small asteroid which NASA shoots at goes on to hit a larger asteroid which knocks an even larger one off course ..... which then heads straight for Earth? ;)
You've been watching too much Red Dwarf!
 
A live asteroid strike exercise.

For the first time, ESA will cover a major international asteroid impact exercise live via social media, highlighting the the actions that might be taken by scientists, space agencies and civil protection organisations.

Every two years, asteroid experts from across the globe come together to simulate a fictional but plausible imminent asteroid impact on Earth. During the week-long scenario, participants – playing roles such as 'national government', 'space agency', 'astronomer' and 'civil protection office' – don't know how the situation will evolve from one day to the next, and must make plans based on the daily updates they are given.

For the first time, ESA will cover progress of the hypothetical impact scenario from 29 April to 3 May live via social media, primarily via the @esaoperations Twitter channel.

https://phys.org/news/2019-04-day-asteroid.html
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jim
A live asteroid strike exercise.

For the first time, ESA will cover a major international asteroid impact exercise live via social media, highlighting the the actions that might be taken by scientists, space agencies and civil protection organisations.

Every two years, asteroid experts from across the globe come together to simulate a fictional but plausible imminent asteroid impact on Earth. During the week-long scenario, participants – playing roles such as 'national government', 'space agency', 'astronomer' and 'civil protection office' – don't know how the situation will evolve from one day to the next, and must make plans based on the daily updates they are given.

For the first time, ESA will cover progress of the hypothetical impact scenario from 29 April to 3 May live via social media, primarily via the @esaoperations Twitter channel.

https://phys.org/news/2019-04-day-asteroid.html
I would think numerous factors are involved. Advanced detection time to spot the asteroid (comet, planetoid, etc). Size - speed -trajectory of the object and available technologies for either neutralizing or redirecting it into a safe orbit. A solid treat assessment with follow-up action sounds like some good due diligence, kudos to ESA.
 
Testing asteroid deflection techniques.

Newly christened “Dimorphos” is a tiny space rock with a big target on its back.

The International Astronomical Union gave the rock an official name on June 23 for a unique reason: It has been marked for the first-ever asteroid deflection mission. A NASA spacecraft will ram into Dimorphos — on purpose — to alter its path through space. Although Dimorphos is not at risk of striking Earth, its nearness to the planet makes it a prime testing ground for a technique to ward off dangerous asteroids in the future (SN: 5/2/17).

Dimorphos is a moonlet asteroid that orbits a larger asteroid known as Didymos. Until now, the moonlet has gone by cute nicknames only, like “Didymoon,” or the ugly designation “S/2003 (65803) 1.” Its new moniker, Dimorphos, is Greek for “having two forms,” in honor of the two different trajectories it will have before and after the spacecraft knocks it askew. At just 160 meters across, about the height of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, Dimorphos is one of the smallest objects to earn an official name from the IAU.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/asteroid-moon-name-nasa-course-deflection-mission
 

NASA to deflect asteroid in test of 'planetary defense'


In the 1998 Hollywood blockbuster "Armageddon," Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck race to save the Earth from being pulverized by an asteroid.

While the Earth faces no such immediate danger, NASA plans to crash a spacecraft traveling at a speed of 15,000 miles per hour (24,000 kph) into an asteroid next year in a test of "planetary defense."

Illustration-of-asteroid-impact-Earth_File-1.jpg


The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) is to determine whether this is an effective way to deflect the course of an asteroid should one threaten the Earth in the future.

NASA provided details of the DART mission, which carries a price tag of $330 million, in a briefing for reporters on Thursday.

The DART spacecraft is scheduled to be launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 10:20 pm Pacific time on November 23 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

If the launch takes place at or around that time, impact with the asteroid some 6.8 million miles from Earth would occur between September 26 and October 1 of next year.

The target asteroid, Dimorphos, which means "two forms" in Greek, is about 525 feet in diameter and orbits around a larger asteroid named Didymos, "twin" in Greek.

The DART spacecraft, which will weigh 1,210 pounds at the time of impact, will not "destroy" the asteroid, Chabot said.

"It's just going to give it a small nudge," she said. "It's going to deflect its path around the larger asteroid."

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20211104-nasa-to-deflect-asteroid-in-test-of-planetary-defense

maximus otter
 
The U.S. is spending 330 million dollars to hit the asteroid called Dimorphos as an experiment to try to change its course.

This program is called DART to protect the earth from life ending asteroids.

It will take the rocket 6 months to get to the asteroid.

If there is a miss, the asteroid will still not hit earth.
 
Back
Top