Spaceflight

UK works on anti-asteroid solutions

Solar-sail-powered kinetic warheads and space mirrors are to be analysed under a three-year £150,000 ($265,000) UK anti-asteroid research project. “We want to investigate the practicality of different deflection strategies,” says University of Glasgow aerospace engineering department researcher Dr Gianmarco Radice, citing the need for solutions that use today’s technology to meet the threat from near-Earth objects (NEO).

The sail-powered craft would use the solar wind to accelerate for over five to 10 years before launching its payload in the path of an incoming asteroid, to collide with a combined speed of 155,675kt (288,000km/h). The impact would not shatter the asteroid, but would impart enough energy to deflect it from its path toward Earth.

The solar mirror would reflect sunlight on to an NEO, where the heating of surface material would generate an ice-vapour plume that would act as a natural rocket, providing thrust to push the object into a different trajectory. The research will also investigate general-purpose orbits and flexible navigation strategies because an asteroid’s orbit may not be clear.