Gravitational Perturbations Correlated With The Asteroid Kinetic Impact Deflection Technique

Abstract

We will present the use of the kinetic impact technique as a way to deflect asteroids that may present some risk of collision with Earth at any given time. Within the work to be developed here, we intend to evaluate in more detail the possibility to deflect the orbit of the asteroid 101955 Bennu, applying variations in its velocity (∆v) at different positions within its orbital period and measuring close encounters with planet Earth. We will see that, in a relatively long period of time, the asteroid has several close encounters with the planet, thus suffering a natural gravitational perturbation. With the application of the impulses, the relative distances change, causing variations in the energy of the asteroid and a large variation in the relative distance between the asteroid and Earth over a long period after the impulse. We present results in relation to the intensity of the applied impulse, which is important due to the size of the impactor to be considered and, for that, we mapped the positions of the impulses along a period of the orbit of the asteroid (M.I.O.A.). We finish by explaining what happens to the orbit of the asteroid during the periods of gravitational perturbation, since it undergoes to several “Swing Bys’ that intensify the variations of the relative distances between the bodies after the impulses.