QBOLT - Directed Energy System Concepts for Asteroid Threat Mitigation

Abstract

Asteroids and other extraterrestrial impactor threats to Earth occur naturally in our solar system. Larger, more massive bodies including cometary fragments in high energy trajectories will be able to pierce the Earth's atmosphere and cause cataclysmic destruction if they are not stopped well enough in advance. Modern Directed Energy Systems are an emerging feasible concept for mitigating the threat of Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). Directed Energy Systems are versatile, scalable, reusable architectures that focus intense coherent beams of energy on a target's surface through the use of phased array lasers. The energy is typically used for the purpose of ablating the surface of the target, or generating substantial ablative thrust to alter the trajectory of the bolide to a new innocuous path. Technologies are fast maturing that allow the integration, test and commissioning of such directed energy systems for use at astronomical distances. This concept architecture study explored innovative strategies for directed energy system application to potentially hazardous asteroid threat.

Architecture for mitigating short-term warning cosmic threats: READI project

“…The DES technique requires relatively long-time interactions thus early detection of the cosmic threat is essential. DES are currently applied for military purposes therefore the technology exists but has not reached the readiness level for PHO deflection [9,25,26,28]. Techniques can be used to amplify the laser power and produce a very high-power laser beam which is essential to raise its surface temperature to the evaporation temperature, Figure 3.…”