Applying Centrifugal Propulsion to Enable Asteroid Deflection

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AIAA LA 11/21 Section (Town Hall) Meeting
(A hybrid event: In-person and online attendance)
Thursday, November 21st, 2024, 5:30 PM PST (GMT -0800) (Presentation 7 PM)

Nov 21
(November 21) Applying Centrifugal Propulsion to Enable Asteroid Deflection
Please join us, the AIAA Los Angeles Section, and learn more about the exciting proposal to land a centrifuge and power supply on a threatening asteroid. We’ll collect asteroid material and spin it away, a bit at a time, using momentum transfer of the recoil to gradually adjust the trajectory from endangering Earth.
Presenter / Speaker:
Dr. Nahum Melamed
AIAA Distinguished Lecturer/Speaker
Project Leader, Guidance and Control Subdivision,
The Aerospace Corporation
(The speaker will present in-person.)
(Free admission. Dinner box optional / additional, not required. OK bringing own dinner).
Da Vinci Schools (2nd Floor Classroom)
201 N Douglas St, El Segundo, CA 90245
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Virtual location
You will receive a confirmation email with a URL.
Nov 21, 2024 05:30pm PT - Nov 21, 2024 08:40pm PT

Register
https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/fazqyab/lp/4d353685-376d-403f-a717-4b936c9836fe
Tentative Agenda: (All Time PST (GMT -0800)) (US and Canada)
05:30 PM: Check-in, Networking
06:00 PM: Networking, Dinner (additional order or bring own dinner)
07:00 PM: Welcome and Introduction
07:05 PM: Presentation and Q&A
08:35 PM: Adjourn / Networking
Disclaimer: The views of the speakers do not represent the views of AIAA or the AIAA Los Angeles Section
(In-person attendance might have better interactive experiences.)
(This event is not sponsored by the Da Vinci Schools)
Applying Centrifugal Propulsion to Enable Asteroid Deflection
To date, asteroid trajectory modification techniques have employed the “big bang” approach. An impulsive deflection is imparted by slamming one or more high-speed kinetic impactor spacecraft into the object or by detonation of a nuclear device in its proximity. This is a “hit it once and hope for the best” approach.
Instead, we propose to land a centrifuge and power supply on a threatening asteroid. We’ll collect asteroid material and spin it away, a bit at a time, using momentum transfer of the recoil to gradually adjust the trajectory from endangering Earth.
This process allows us to sequentially “eject, measure, eject, measure” to gradually deflect the trajectory and fine tune the needed course correction. It offers many operating parameters that can be varied over time, from which an optimized solution can be implemented: location of the landing site, weight of each ejected package, launch speed and direction, cadence and timing of successive ejections, relationship to the asteroid velocity vector, and its spin axis. Once landed on an asteroid, the centrifugal system requires no consumables. Operating entirely on electrical power, it can operate indefinitely.
This approach addresses aspects of Goal 3 of the 2018 U.S. government’s “National Near-Earth (NEO) Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan”—“Develop technologies and designs for NEO deflection and disruption missions.” The centrifuge approach adds a sustainable and repeatable slow-push tool to the planetary defense toolbox. It mitigates the risk and uncertainty of the single-impulse methods. An artist’s early concept is shown above.
Chelyabinsk and Tunguska-size objects could be deflected to miss Earth within a few weeks of such on-site centrifuge operation. The asteroid Bennu could be deflected in a few years of continuous spinner operation, depending upon the parameters chosen, sufficient to eliminate a potential collision with Earth in the late 22nd century.
The innovation of a self-contained power and kinetic launch capability without consumables opens new vistas for cost-effective asteroid deflection and other commercial, scientific, government, and international space missions.
Dr. Nahum Melamed is a project leader in the Embedded Control Systems Department in the Guidance and Control Subdivision at The Aerospace Corporation. He joined Aerospace in 2003. As a technical lead in Launch Vehicle Software, Dr. Melamed coordinates and guides a team of interdepartmental technical experts, and supports validation and mission readiness certification of the flight software and mission parameters for NASA’s Artemis missions. He conducts planetary defense technical and policy studies, co-chairs planetary defense conferences, serves on exercises exercise organizing committees, and speaks at these venues. He earned a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech.

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