Application of a heavy spacecraft with low-thrust engines for asteroid deviation from a dangerous trajectory

Aeronautical and Space-Rocket Engineering

Dynamics, ballistics, movement control of flying vehicles


Аuthors

Nikolaeva E. A.*, Starinova O. L.**

Samara National Research University named after Academician S.P. Korolev, 34, Moskovskoye shosse, Samara, 443086, Russia

*e-mail: nikolaevalizaveta@mail.ru
**e-mail: solleo@mail.ru

Abstract

The problem of asteroid danger for the Earth has long enough attracted the attention of scientists and society. Studying the traces of the space originated catastrophes on surface of the Earth and celestial bodies, as well as observing asteroids in the near-Earth space reveal the seriousness of asteroid hazard for the Earth civilization and the necessity of developing measures for its prevention.

The studies related to the issues of asteroid hazard encompass several trends.

Above all, detecting dangerous asteroids approaching the Earth (AAE) and their orbits determining. Currently, there are several national programs for optical observation of such bodies (NASA, LINEAR, ESA). It is assumed that these programs allowed detect great majority of such bodies with the size order of a kilometer or more. A whole number of such studies and projects envisage the countermeasures against these outlanders by their changing orbits or their destruction into small splinters, burning down in the atmosphere.

The urgency of the asteroid danger overcoming is beyond doubt at present, and the developing measures for its prevention should be one of the most important tasks to be solved by the humankind in the 21st century.

The goal of the presented work consists in developing a mathematical model, simulation and effectiveness analysis of the Earth protection systems to overcome the asteroid danger by the gravitational tractor.

To achieve the set goal, the following tasks were solved:

1)   Studying parameters asteroids approaching the Earth;

2)   Developing mathematical models of the joint motion of asteroid and all the bodies involved in the process of deviation from the dangerous trajectory (Sun, Earth, spacecraft, asteroid);

3)   Developing a software package, ensuring simulation and visualization of the proposed method of the asteroid danger counteracting;

4)   Analyzing the simulation results of the proposed method of the asteroid danger counteracting.

The main results obtained in the work are as follows:

-     a mathematical model of the motion of bodies, with perturbations from the gravitational tractor acting on them: a variable mass asteroid, spacecraft, the Earth and the Sun, with account for the gravity of all bodies;

-     based on a a mathematical model of the bodies motion system, the software package “Simulation of the Earth protection systems functioning to overcome the asteroid hazard” for the asteroid trajectory simulation by the selected method of the asteroid danger overcoming in heliocentric coordinate system was developed;

-     simulation of the potentially hazardous bodies deviation method (asteroid deviation by the gravitational tractor) for the 99942 Apophis asteroid was performed with the developed software complex “Simulation of the Earth protection systems functioning to overcome the asteroid hazard”;

-   the simulation resulted in obtaining the flight trajectories of all the bodies of the system under consideration (the Earth, the Sun, asteroid and a spacecraft) and heliocentric movement parameters;

-   the efficiency analysis of the selected method was performed.

Keywords:

spacecraft, asteroid hazard, mathematical model, trajectory, gravity tractor, software package

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