The Aerospace Corporation

The Aerospace Corporation operates the only federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) committed exclusively to the space enterprise. Our technical experts span every discipline of space-related science and engineering. The Aerospace Corporation performs objective technical analyses and assessments for a variety of government, civil, and commercial customers. The corporation’s commitment to its core values has made it the leading architect and principal technical resource for programs of national significance. Our people are our most valuable resource. We employ 3,900 diverse and talented people who are empowered to ensure the highest levels of performance. Aerospace works side by side with our customers wherever they are, staffing two dozen locations across 11 states, anchored by our two largest campuses, in El Segundo, Calif., and Chantilly, Va. This past year saw growth across Aerospace’s network of campuses, including continued expansion at our Colorado Springs, Colo., Albuquerque, N.M., and Huntsville, Ala., locations.

Activities/Resources

Asteroid Deflection Activity (for High School Students):

Suppose a Near-Earth Object (NEO) is on a collision course with the Earth. How could we prevent it from impacting our planet? Numerous concepts have been proposed for deflecting an asteroid away from a collision trajectory using technologies such as solar concentrators, lasers, rocket engines, explosives, or mass drivers. But the best and most reliable deflection technique could well be the simplest one of all: knocking the object off course by hitting it at high speed with a large impacting spacecraft. In fact, the navigational expertise required for this type of mission was already demonstrated when the Deep Impact spacecraft was purposely slammed into the nucleus of comet Tempel 1 on July 4th 2005.

The NEO Deflection App is a web-based educational tool designed to demonstrate the basic concepts involved in deflecting an asteroid away from an Earth impacting trajectory by hitting it with an impactor spacecraft. Since we have made a number of simplifying assumptions in designing this application, it is really only for educational use. Nevertheless, the asteroid trajectory dynamics are very realistic, as are the calculations of the amount by which this trajectory moves during the Earth encounter as a function of the velocity change that occurs when the spacecraft impacts the asteroid many days, months or years earlier.

The application is pre-loaded with a number of simulated asteroids, all on Earth impact trajectories. These are not actual known asteroids – they are all simulated! Even though they are hypothetical, the trajectories are realistic and representative of what we would expect for possible real Earth impactors. Most of the trajectories we have selected are of the "Apollo" orbit type, which means they have orbital periods greater than 1 year, but some are of the "Aten" type, with periods of less than 1 year. The orbits have a variety of inclinations relative to the ecliptic plane (the plane of the Earth’s orbit). Some have close encounters with the Earth prior to impact, producing “keyholes” that provide opportunities for amplifying the effects of deflections that take place prior to these close Earth approaches.

Development of the NEO Deflection App was sponsored by NASA’s Planetary Science Division, Science Mission Directorate, was led by the NEO Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and was implemented by The Aerospace Corporation.

Activity/Resource Website: https://planetary-defense.aerospace.org/app

Activity/Resource Website: Aerospace Virtual Tours

Contact Information

Kyler Daniel
Associate Member of Technical Staff
kyler.daniel@aero.org