Design of a Formation of Solar Pumped Lasers for Asteroid Deflection

TL;DR

This paper proposes a multi-spacecraft solar laser system for asteroid deflection, optimizing formation orbits to maximize impact while minimizing spacecraft mass.

Contribution

It introduces a novel formation design and multi-objective optimization method for a swarm of solar-pumped laser spacecraft for asteroid deflection.

Findings

Significant asteroid deflections achieved with small spacecraft.

Optimized formation orbits reduce total spacecraft mass.

Laser-induced sublimation effectively alters asteroid trajectory.

Abstract

This paper presents the design of a multi-spacecraft system for the deflection of asteroids. Each spacecraft is equipped with a fibre laser and a solar concentrator. The laser induces the sublimation of a portion of the surface of the asteroid. The jet of gas and debris thrusts the asteroid off its natural course. The main idea is to have a swarm of spacecraft flying in the proximity of the asteroid with all the spacecraft beaming to the same location to achieve the required deflection thrust. The paper presents the design of the formation orbits and the multi-objective optimization of the swarm in order to minimize the total mass in space and maximize the deflection of the asteroid. The paper demonstrates how significant deflections can be obtained with relatively small sized, easy-to-control spacecraft.