Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Sep 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.2701c&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #27.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.434
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The problem of deflecting a Near-Earth Object (NEO) off of an impacting trajectory has received considerable attention in recent years, but it is not well known that there are times at which deflection is completely ineffective in mitigating an impact. It is generally understood that if applied early enough, even a small deflection could change an impacting trajectory to a near-miss trajectory. It is also well known that in order to achieve the maximum deflection for a given velocity change, it is best to apply it in the along-track direction at perihelion. But which perihelion is best? The general rule has been that it is best to deflect as early as possible, since earlier deflections will require smaller velocity changes to achieve a desired position change.
We find that this simplistic rule often does not hold for objects with shallow encounters years or decades before impact. Indeed, there are epochs long before impact at which no deflection of any reasonable size will prevent the impact. Any trajectory produced by deflection at these times is essentially refocused by the intervening encounter back onto an impacting trajectory. These zero-leverage times are surrounded by multi-year intervals during which deflection attempts will have very low effectiveness. This effect will be illustrated using several example cases.
Chesley Steve
Chodas Paul
Valsecchi Giovanni B.
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