Near Earth object mitigation studies

Early detection of an object on a collision course with Earth, leading to well-considered and effective measures to mitigate its hazards, is not always possible due to a number of extenuating factors. NASA and the Department of Energy (DOE)'s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) have partnered to develop a full systems framework for understanding very short warning time scenarios requiring high-energy impulsive solutions to neutralize Potentially Hazardous Objects (PHOs) found to be on Earth-impacting trajectories. While previous studies have identified and studied certain aspects of the end-to-end impactor mitigation problem in some detail, the preliminary results for year one of a 3-year research investigation we report on herein will discuss the development of an integrated framework extensible to future data and emergent near-Earth object (NEO) mitigation strategies. As we will discuss, recent increases in computational power and algorithm sophistication now allow new calculations of the response of even irregularly shaped/structured NEOs to various proposed mitigation schemes. Representative energy deposition results on the first of 3 Design Reference Asteroids (DRAs), Bennu, will be included, along with mitigation mission designs and plans for subsequent DRAs.