NEOShield: progress towards an international near-Earth object mitigation program

Abstract

NEOShield is a European-Union funded project coordinated by the German Aerospace Center, DLR, to address near-Earth object (NEO) impact hazard mitigation issues. The NEOShield consortium consists of 13 research institutes, universities, and industrial partners from 6 countries and includes leading US and Russian space organizations. The project is funded for a period of 3.5 years from January 2012 with a total of 5.8 million euros. The primary aim of the project is to investigate in detail promising mitigation techniques, such as the kinetic impactor, blast deflection, and the gravity tractor, and devise feasible demonstration missions. Options for an international strategy for implementation when an actual impact threat arises will also be investigated. The NEOShield work plan consists of scientific investigations into the nature of the impact hazard and the physical properties of NEOs, and technical and engineering studies of practical means of deflecting NEOs. There exist many ideas for asteroid deflection techniques, many of which would require considerable scientific and technological development. The emphasis of NEOShield is on techniques that are feasible with current technology, requiring a minimum of research and development work. NEOShield aims to provide detailed designs of feasible mitigation demonstration missions, targeting NEOs of the kind most likely to trigger the first space-based mitigation action.