On the Effects of Solar Radiation Pressure on the Deviation of Asteroids

Abstract

In this work, we study the effects of solar radiation pressure (SRP) on the problem of changing the orbit of an asteroid to support planetary defense, scientific research, or exploitation of materials. This alternative considers a tethered reflective balloon (or a set of reflective balloons) attached to the asteroid, with a high area-to-mass ratio, to use the SRP to deflect a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) or to approximate the target asteroid to Earth. The tether is assumed to be inextensible and massless, and the motion is described only in the orbital plane of the asteroid around the Sun. The model is then used to study the effects that the tether length, the reflectivity coefficient, and the area-to-mass ratio have on the deviation of the trajectory of the asteroid.