Preliminary Mission Study: Mass Driver for Earth-Bound Asteroid Threat Mitigation

In the mid 70's, researchers proposed using a mass driver for lunar and asteroid mining. The mass driver concept has since been extended to missions where the drivers can be used to alter the orbital trajectory of an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. The potential of using the material of the asteroid itself as reaction mass to provide the impulsive force is undeniably attractive. The mass driver must be able to deliver enough impulse upon an asteroid to prevent it from Earth impact. The results of the preliminary study presented in this paper discuss some of the parameters involved in sizing a mass driver. A finite element program was used to calculate the performance of the mass drivers, and the results were compared with Δv needed to mitigate the Earth-bound asteroid threat. There are many difficulties involved with designing this mission and some of these are discussed. It was found that significant developments in all technology areas involved in this mission are needed for this concept to be considered as a possible solution to save Earth from an asteroid impact.