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How we beat 2019 PDC to NYC by 2 years, within 2 years, 2 years ago

Ceriotti, Matteo and Seefeldt, Patric and Kesseler, Lars and Viavattene, Giulia and Moore, Iain and Peloni, Alessandro and McInnes, Colin and Hillebrandt, Martin and Zander, Martin E. and Grundmann, Jan Thimo and Lange, Caroline (2021) How we beat 2019 PDC to NYC by 2 years, within 2 years, 2 years ago. iaaspace.org. 7th IAA Planetary Defense Conference - PDC 2021, 2021-04-26 - 2021-04-30, Wien, Österreich (virtuell).

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Official URL: https://iaaspace.org/event/7th-iaa-planetary-defense-conference-2021/

Abstract

For the Planetary Defense Conference Exercise 2019, we set out to find ways to obtain the earliest possible characterization of the incoming (fictitious!) asteroid, 2019 PDC. After a partially successful deflection, a 'small' fragment was still bound for impact. The location was only known two weeks before impact - the time left for the evacuation of the larger New York City metropolitan region. With experience in Near-Earth Object (NEO) exploration mission design, solar sail and solar-electric propulsion (SEP) technology for small spacecraft, agile responsive design and integration, and from previous PDC Exercises, the importance of earliest possible information on impact location and energy was obvious. NEO in-situ exploration can provide invaluable information not just for deflection actions but also for planetary science and resource utilization. This is only possible with space missions closely approaching the asteroid. Expecting a solar sail mission flying in the 2020s could be re-directed, a unique feature of solar sailing, we searched for multiple rendezvous missions at initial sail technology characteristic accelerations of =<0.10 mm/s². We found numerous options of up to three NEO encounters in the launch window 2019-2027 but none could divert to 2019 PDC in time. In addition, we explored very steerable and throttleable low-thrust solar-electric propulsion (SEP) rendezvous to a particular group of NEOs, the Taurid swarm which was expected to become observable in the summer of 2019, with a possible impact threat in the early 2030s. An acceleration of 0.23 mm/s² would suffice for a rendezvous in ~2000 days. Shorter transfers are available at higher acceleration. Finally, we found two low-thrust options to 2019 PDC, one sail and one SEP, both arriving about 2 years before impact at the fragment, SEP requiring 0.3 mm/s² acceleration - about the performance limit we estimate for "now-term" technology. They require launch within less than 2 years of discovery of 2019 PDC, which we consider feasible provided that the basic technology has been flown. This is the case for SEP but not yet for solar sails of which only a few demonstrators were flown. SEP has become a mainstream propulsion method. Soon, the majority of all spacecraft ever launched will be small SEP spacecraft. DLR GOSSAMER solar sails use a strategy for controlled deployment of large membranes based on a combination of zig-zag folding and coiling of triangular sail segments spanned between crossed booms, all unfolded by dedicated deployment units. To reduce the complexity of this system for fast-tracked initial solar sail flights an adaptation of that deployment strategy was developed that allows deployment actuation from a central bus. The mass of such a sailcraft will be slightly increased but its performance is still reasonable for first solar sail missions. This design was breadboarded to demonstrate feasibility of the deployment strategy and its performance analyzed. On this background we developed two preliminary spacecraft designs by taking SEP off-the-shelf and getting solar sails into space soonest. We present how we beat 2019 PDC to NYC by >2 years, within <2 years, 2 years ago - and didn't tell anyone.

Item URL in elib:https://elib.dlr.de/142224/
Document Type:Conference or Workshop Item (Speech, Poster)
Title:How we beat 2019 PDC to NYC by 2 years, within 2 years, 2 years ago
Authors:
AuthorsInstitution or Email of AuthorsAuthor's ORCID iDORCID Put Code
Ceriotti, MatteoUniversity of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdomhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-6819-7178UNSPECIFIED
Seefeldt, PatricUNSPECIFIEDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-2067-9458UNSPECIFIED
Kesseler, LarsLevity Space SystemsUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Viavattene, GiuliaUniversity of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, United KingdomUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Moore, IainUniversity of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, United KingdomUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Peloni, AlessandroUniversity of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdomhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-1903-9816UNSPECIFIED
McInnes, ColinUniversity of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United KingdomUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Hillebrandt, MartinUNSPECIFIEDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-1248-9504UNSPECIFIED
Zander, Martin E.UNSPECIFIEDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-5972-2938UNSPECIFIED
Grundmann, Jan ThimoUNSPECIFIEDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-8809-0981UNSPECIFIED
Lange, CarolineUNSPECIFIEDhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-1709-3667UNSPECIFIED
Date:26 April 2021
Refereed publication:No
Open Access:Yes
Gold Open Access:No
In SCOPUS:No
In ISI Web of Science:No
Editors:
EditorsEmailEditor's ORCID iDORCID Put Code
Ailor, William HThe Aerospace CorporationUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Barbee, BrentNASA/Goddard Space Flight Center & The University of MarylandUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Drolshagen, GerhardUniversity Oldenburg, GermanyUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Karl, AlexIAF TC on NEOsUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Melamed, NahumThe Aerospace CorporationUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Cheng, A.F.Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, USAUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Tantardini, MarcoConsultant, former Space Policy Officer in the Office of the Italian Prime MinisterUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Vardaxis, GeorgeThe Aerospace CorporationUNSPECIFIEDUNSPECIFIED
Publisher:iaaspace.org
Status:Published
Keywords:solar sail, Near-Earth Object, Membrane deployment strategies, Solar-Electric propulsion, small spacecraft
Event Title:7th IAA Planetary Defense Conference - PDC 2021
Event Location:Wien, Österreich (virtuell)
Event Type:international Conference
Event Start Date:26 April 2021
Event End Date:30 April 2021
Organizer:IAA
HGF - Research field:Aeronautics, Space and Transport
HGF - Program:Space
HGF - Program Themes:Space System Technology
DLR - Research area:Raumfahrt
DLR - Program:R SY - Space System Technology
DLR - Research theme (Project):R - GoSolAr (Gossamer Solar Array), R - Requirements and Verification Interchange in MBSE, R - Project Mascot (Bus), R - Projekt Mascot (Rob.), R - Project MASCOT - Science
Location: Bremen
Institutes and Institutions:Institute of Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems > Functional Lightweight Structures
Institute of Space Systems > Mechanic and Thermal Systems
Institute of Space Systems > Systems Engineering and Project Office
Deposited By: Grundmann, Jan Thimo
Deposited On:11 May 2021 08:36
Last Modified:24 Apr 2024 20:42

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