Asteroids: The Threat They Pose and How They Will Form the Space Economy
By: Erik Ruof
Tags: Economics, Space, Astronomy, Science, Technology

It’s fun to also note that there has only been one instance in recorded history that a meteor hit a person.

On November 30, 1954, the home of Ann Elizabeth Hodges was visited by a 9-pound space rock. The meteor pierced through the ceiling ricocheted off of the radio and hit Hodges on her thigh close to where the sun doesn't shine.

She suffered no more than a serious bruise and the meteor walked away without any assault charges.

The chances of you ever being hit by an asteroid, outside of this one instance, is negligible but not completely impossible.

So how would we be able to stop an asteroid from giving us a bruise or at the very worst a fiery apocalypse?

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

Asteroid Defense

Astronomers in Hawaii revealed that the fridge-sized asteroid Apophis, nicknamed the “God of Chaos,” will be close enough to Earth to be visible by the naked eye in the years 2029, 2036, and 2068. However, the proximity between Apophis and Earth in 2068 could be close enough to create an impact.

This asteroid isn’t large enough to cause serious global damage and the calculations may change as the years progress. The good news is that we have plenty of time to better understand this asteroid to prepare for what the future awaits.

If there were to be an asteroid large enough to cause immense devastation hurling towards Earth, NASA would require 5–10 years of preparing an asteroid defense mission. Any less time than that and we would be toast.

But if such a mission were made possible it would involve getting a spectral signature of the meteor to take into account its material characteristics (M-type, C-type, or S-type) and then launching spacecrafts to deflect the incoming asteroid in several ways exploitative of Newton’s laws of motion.

Fun Ways to Take Out an Asteroid

★ Nuclear Explosive: Destroying an asteroid to pieces isn’t as simple as Hollywood plays it out to be. It also downplays the danger of an added amount of debris spreading out to pulverize more locations on our planet, avoided by detonating it early enough. In reality, the aim of an explosive device is to create a large enough blast to heat the surface of the asteroid creating ejecta that would decrease its mass and propel the asteroid on a different course away from Earth. If that sounds too extreme you can just attach a conventional rocket engine to it instead.

★ Kinetic Impactor: This would involve having an unmanned spacecraft kamikaze into an asteroid to directly decrease its momentum. This was attempted in 2005 by the Deep Impact spacecraft on comet Tempel 1 and was successful in changing the orbit by 3 inches by a 19-gigajoule explosion. That might sound like pennies but it would be enough to prevent an object from hitting Earth.

★ Gravity Tractor: An asteroid can be moved gradually over time by way of an unmanned spacecraft hover over an asteroid close enough to generate a mutual gravitational pull. The spacecraft would also be armed with an ion thruster shooting a quasi-neutral plasma beam at the asteroid’s surface to command the direction the asteroid follows. That was a lot of fun science words.

★ Lasers!: The arcade game was on the right track. Focused laser shots from spacecrafts would ablate away enough of the asteroid’s surface like a sculptor to marble sending that Statue of David to another part of space. Solar energy can also be used in place of lasers by having spacecrafts armed with a system of large concave mirrors and magnifying glasses.

★ Magnets!: Creating a magnetic flux compression would help stop asteroids with high meteoric iron content. It involves a complicated process of deploying a large wire coil into the orbital path of the asteroid where it will pass through and create an electromagnetic solenoid. Words, words, words.

★ Catapults!: This is a process that would have to be done far in advance. An automated mass driver would have to be installed onto an asteroid which would shoot material from the asteroid into space providing a steady push and a steady diet to lose its mass.

★ Plastic?: This one is a lot of fun. It involves taking a giant sheet of plastic and wrapping it around the asteroid connecting it to a solar sail. A solar sail is able to be propelled by solar radiation pressure being reflected by mirrors.

★ Spray Paint? Wait really?: This is the least destructive and arguably the least expensive of the options. First, it is important to go over the Yarkovsky effect. Asteroids maneuver through space similarly to planets and have their own day and night cycle. During the day the asteroid gets warmer by absorbing the daylight heat. Nighttime cools the asteroid causing the absorbed thermal energy to be emitted acting as a mini thruster slowly changing the asteroid’s direction over time. That is the Yarkovsky effect. Painting the asteroid’s surface with titanium dioxide would increase radiation pressure to alter the asteroid’s course. This means we would send our best taggers into space to stop an impact. We’d be able to see an asteroid with “Deez Nuts” written on it fly away from us.

Photo by Usukhbayar Gankhuyag on Unsplash

Asteroid Diplomacy

Incoming asteroids capable of extinction-level catastrophe is an obvious global concern. Any alteration of the path of the asteroid would be a diplomatic issue because depending on where the asteroid was deflected towards could have a larger chance of hitting one country over the other.

And we know Russia is fed up with it. They can’t help that they have such a large landmass.

It brings up the question that if an incoming asteroid wouldn’t destroy much outside of a city, who’s to say which countries’ space program would weaponize it for use against their adversaries?

There may have to be a global council formed to combat any misuse of asteroid defense technology. The future of politics and the economy will have its eyes on space.

As long as we are able to form diplomacy over the issues faced with our place in the universe everything would be under fair control.

Besides, I’m sure that if the world were to face a global catastrophe countries would all work together to mitigate it quickly so that our way of life wouldn’t be shut down for a prolonged period of time.

Right?