Rapid and Scalable Architecture Design for Planetary Defense

A modular/swarm spacecraft architecture, based upon existing spacecraft buses and launch vehicles, is proposed to mitigate near-Earth object (NEO) planetary threats. Each spacecraft that is part of this swarm would utilize mass driver technology to remove mass from the object to yield an Earth -avoiding trajectory. Such a design philosophy focuses on developing rapid and scalable NEO mitigation plans incorporating the world’s current launch vehicle/spacecraft bus manufacturing capability. Specific planetary threats are examined, each with different impact times and masses, and based upon predetermined fictitious Defined Threat (DEFT) scenarios. Potential advantages envisioned in such an architecture design include: integrating the analysis of spacecraft development/deployment/launch, ability to complete the mission given the loss of part of the swarm, scalability of response for different size threats, and flexibility to initiate an immediate response leaving the option to develop more advanced systems. NOMENCLATURE