Abstract
The spectacular collision of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 asteroid with Jupiter in July 1994 was a dramatic reminder of the inevitability of such catastrophes in the Earth’s future unless steps are taken to develop methods for Earth-approaching object detection and possible interdiction. In this work optimal (minimum-time) very-low-thrust trajectories using electric propulsion are determined for the interception of asteroids which pose a threat of collision with the Earth. At the time of interception the system state transition matrix is found and used to indicate the direction in which an impulse should be applied to the asteroid to maximize the subsequent deflection.
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© 1999 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Conway, B.A. (1999). Optimal Low-Thrust Interception and Deflection of Earth-Crossing Asteroids. In: Steves, B.A., Roy, A.E. (eds) The Dynamics of Small Bodies in the Solar System. NATO ASI Series, vol 522. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9221-5_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9221-5_15
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5133-2
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