Precautionary Planetary Defence

The question of whether to attempt deflections during planetary defence emergencies has been subject to considerable decision-making analysis (Schmidt 2018; SMPAG Ad-Hoc Working Group on Legal Issues 2020). Hypothetical situations usually involve a newly discovered asteroid with a high impact probab...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors Boley, Aaron C, Byers, Michael
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 21.06.2021
Subjects
Physics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Physics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
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Summary:The question of whether to attempt deflections during planetary defence emergencies has been subject to considerable decision-making analysis (Schmidt 2018; SMPAG Ad-Hoc Working Group on Legal Issues 2020). Hypothetical situations usually involve a newly discovered asteroid with a high impact probability on a set timescale. This paper addresses two further complexities: (1) limiting missions to an asteroid due to the risk of a human-caused Earth impact; and (2) active management of asteroids to place them in "safe harbours", even when impact risks are otherwise below "decision to act" thresholds. We use Apophis as a case study, and address the two complexities in turn.
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.2106.11241