Survey of potentially hazardous object threat negation campaign options

Abstract Deflecting a potentially hazardous object (PHO) away from Earth is dependent on the amount of advance warning time, object material composition, trajectory, and the perturbing method. There are many proposed concepts that provide solutions to either deflect or fragment a PHO over a given amount of time. Each concept has its own advantages and disadvantages. Once a threat is established, an end-to-end PHO mitigation campaign design might include the use of various techniques and multiple phases. The purpose of this survey is to provide useful information to decision makers about the overall effort required to mitigate a threatening object with high reliability. Campaign and mission timelines, launch vehicle(s) and spacecraft, deflection option(s), and resource and technology requirements are some of the considerations that are addressed. A uniform rating scale is established and applied to a number of proposed deflection concepts. Several representative threat scenarios are defined and used to rank proposed deflection concepts based on a set of criteria, such as warning time and technology readiness. Multiple independent deflection attempts are considered as means to increase campaign effectiveness.