| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/S83999/01 |
| Title: |
Optimal Interception & Deviation of Potentially Hazardous Near Earth Objects |
| Principal Investigator: |
Radice, Dr G |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Researcher Co-Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
School of Engineering |
| Organisation: |
University of Glasgow |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 June 2005 |
Ends: |
31 October 2008 |
Value (£): |
154,012
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
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| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| Aerospace, Defence and Marine |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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A crucial issue relating to the safety of our planet is the danger represented by small celestial bodies such as comets or asteroids, which can intercept the Earth and cause catastrophic impacts. Significant effort has been devoted to the monitoring and cataloguing of potentially hazardous objects, but little or no research is being carried out to assess how to act and react in the case of a NEO travelling on a collision course with the Earth. The objective of the proposed work is to develop fundamental optimal control theory and apply it to the interception of hazardous NEOs. Different parameters, time, mass, orbital corrections, maximum deviation, etc. will be optimised. A study of the robustness of the methods will also be performed to take into account the uncertainties on both the NEO dynamics and boundary conditions. A variety of propulsion methods, ranging from solar sails to nuclear propulsion will be considered and the advantages and disadvantages of each assessed. Numerical simulations in a realistic scenario will be developed in order to investigate the performance of such methods and, to evaluate the optimal trajectories and deviation methodologies, the simulation data will be animated.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.gla.ac.uk |