AEROSPACE SHANGHAI, Volume. 41, Issue 6, 46(2024)
Potential Gain of Quasi-eccentric Collision on the Kinetic Impact Orbit Deflection in Planetary Defense Missions
In an asteroid momentum deflection mission, the existence of ejecta effects induces an apparent “amplification” of the system momentum. Existing studies predominantly focus on scenarios where a spacecraft impacts an asteroid’s geometric center. However, through theoretical derivations, this paper demonstrates that when the velocity vector of the spacecraft is non-parallel to that of the asteroid, an impact offset from the geometric center can result in a significantly greater deflection distance compared with a geometric center impact. Numerical simulations are conducted for a potentially hazardous asteroid, i.e., Apophis, to evaluate the kinetic impact deflection by comparing the deflection distances resulting from the impacts at a geometric center and a non-geometric center under an optimized dual-pulse transfer orbit. The results reveal an average deflection distance of 923.59 km with a standard deviation of 273.29 km for geometric center impacts, whereas the impacts on a specific non-geometric surface yield an average deflection distance of 1 328.57 km and a standard deviation of 48.61 km. This translates to a
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Kin Thong LEE, Zhaokui WANG. Potential Gain of Quasi-eccentric Collision on the Kinetic Impact Orbit Deflection in Planetary Defense Missions[J]. AEROSPACE SHANGHAI, 2024, 41(6): 46
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Received: Jan. 26, 2024
Accepted: --
Published Online: Mar. 7, 2025
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