کد مقاله | کد نشریه | سال انتشار | مقاله انگلیسی | نسخه تمام متن |
---|---|---|---|---|
1714973 | 1013347 | 2013 | 9 صفحه PDF | دانلود رایگان |
![عکس صفحه اول مقاله: Limits on the use of nuclear explosives for asteroid deflection Limits on the use of nuclear explosives for asteroid deflection](/preview/png/1714973.png)
Recent studies by the US National Research Council identify nuclear explosives as the only current technology able to deflect large asteroids (those exceeding 500 m in diameter) or to mitigate impacts of smaller bodies when the warning time is short. Previous work predicts that either a standoff burst or a very low-yield surface burst is easily capable of deflecting a large (1 km) asteroid without fragmentation. Alternatively, large near-surface or just sub-surface bursts can sufficiently disrupt and disperse smaller bodies (300 m) to ensure that large fractions (in excess of 99.99%) miss the Earth entirely. Even for very short warning times (less than a month), more than 99.5% of a body′s mass can be deflected off of an Earth-bound trajectory. However, successfully deflecting a small body, while avoiding fragmentation, becomes a challenging problem when the required kinetic energy increment is a substantial fraction of the body′s potential. This paper addresses the challenge of preventing the production of substantial low-speed debris while deflecting small bodies with an impulsive method.
► Standoff nuclear bursts can defend against Earth-bound asteroids.
► We modeled the effects of standoff nuclear bursts on Apophis-sized asteroids.
► We examined the effects of porosity on the deflection of asteroids.
► Higher porosity lowered the risk of fragmentation when deflecting via standoff burst.
Journal: Acta Astronautica - Volume 90, Issue 1, September 2013, Pages 103–111