NEOShield has not been given a lot of publicity beyond the circles of humans who have been involved with the project. The word NEO stands for Near Earth Object. The word Shield implies that some form of identification, shielding, diversion or destruction programs will be involved with the NEOShield.
There is a lot going on in our space. Some 6000 NEOs have been discovered. About 10 of those are Inner Earth Orbit objects (IEO). These come in all sizes and researchers believe that more than 1000 of the objects have diameters that are greater than 100 meters. It is part of the NEO program to find out about these objects and to create asteroid finding systems and maps.
An asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier passed within the moon’s orbit in November. This was the closest approach by an object that large in more than 30 years.
Even more exciting is the discovery of Earth’s first Trojan Asteroid. A Trojan asteroid shares its orbit with a planet and has an almost identical orbital period. Jupiter, Neptune and Mars have Trojan Asteroids, but this is the first time that one has been found for Earth.
The National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) website has a user friendly tour through the NEO program. The program is led by the German space agency’s (DLR) Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin and many nations and institutions are contributing to the program.
The overall mission and some details were presented in a PDF format paper that was published by the the DLR Institute of Planetary Research,
“The primary aim of the project, NEOShield, is to investigate in detail the three most promising mitigation techniques: the kinetic impactor, blast deflection, and the gravity tractor, and devise feasible demonstration missions.”
The reason for this project was that there was no concerted global mission that could deal with impact threats or come up with ways of organizing, preparing and implementing any possible mitigation approaches.
For a global approach:
A consortium was formed that includes 13 research institutes, universities, industrial partners and leading US and Russian space organizations.
The primary aims of the NEOShield project are:
To investigate the three most promising mitigation techniques: the kinetic impactor, blast deflection, and the gravity tractor.
Then the consortium will devise feasible demonstration missions.
Finally, the consortium will investigate ways for an international strategy to be implemented when an actual impact threat arises.
The Kinetic Impactor was based on the European Space Agency’s Don Quijote mission study program, but will go further to resolve questions that were left over. Don Quijote would attempt to deflect a hazardous asteroid or other NEO. Don Quijote consists of an orbiting observation spacecraft called Sancho and a impacting spacecraft called Hidalgo. Many questions with Don Quijote will be examined and answered during the NEOShield process.
The Blast Deflection mitigating techniques (PDF) include rendezvous and landing with a spacecraft that could use electric propulsion and nuclear or solar power technologies.
The Gravity Tractor (PDF) is expected to be more appropriate for situations where there is enough warning time. In other situations, blowing up a large NEO would create even more large NEOs as a result. Thus, deection techniques are seen as a very attractive alternative where the object is diverted or averted.
In summary, as we enter this exciting new period of discovering and apprehending threats from space, it is good to know that a global enterprise has been set up for nations to work together at protecting the world from unwanted visitors.
