Charting response options for threatening near-Earth objects

摘要

Although the threat caused by an impact of near-Earth objects (NEOs) has been increasingly recognized by the international community both at a scientific and political level, no study is addressing this issue in an interdisciplinary manner. A project has been carried out at the International Space University (ISU), located in Strasbourg, France, addressing the problem of the response to a NEO threat, including space-based missions, Earth-based mitigation, political, organizational and space-law issues. This paper summarizes the main results of this study. In order to determine an appropriate response, a new system of classification of the different NEO threat scenarios was created. A specific case study was examined in the project. The threat scenario involved the NEO named 1997 XF11, with response options ranging from deflection, to destruction using the concept known as the "billiards shot".