The Space Elevator and Planetary Defense
- Paper number
IAC-05-D4.2.03
- Author
Dr. Bryan E. Laubscher, Los Alamos National Laboratory, United States
- Year
2005
- Abstract
The threat from near Earth objects (NEOs) is a long-term concern for the human race. Certain impact scenarios, such as a massive long period comet entering the solar system and making a direct hit on Earth, are considered intractable from the perspective of mitigation. In this paper, the rapid launch cadence, very high launch capacity and large Av imparted to payloads upon launch of space elevator technology are applied to mitigation of an impact scenario. A simple, idealized analysis will be used to determine the efficacy of launching a series of mitigation spacecraft toward the impacting body. The results will be gauged by the fraction of the initial mass deflected from impact with Earth.
- Abstract document