Defense Strategies and Development Status of Near-Earth Asteroid Impact on the Earth

Abstract

The impact of asteroids on the Earth has always been a matter of great concern in the fields of astronomy and planetary science. It is one of the causes of many biological extinction events in the history of the Earth. In recent years, with the rapid development of science and technology in various countries, human beings’ research and detection capabilities on asteroids impacting the Earth have been significantly improved. This article starts with how to destroy asteroids and change their orbits and conducts research on near-Earth asteroid defense technologies to analyze the basic principles of three defense technology approaches. The first is the OTM/HOTM method, which focuses on solving the changes in materials under real impact conditions in a unified framework, which significantly improves computational efficiency in multiple dimensions. The second is to establish a magnetic plasma sail-asteroid combination model for simulation calculations and change the orbit of the asteroid through the interaction between the “magnetic bubble” and the plasma in the solar wind. The third is to use multiple interceptors to directly collide with weak characteristic points on near-Earth asteroids to make them non-threatening. Based on the current status and development ideas of asteroid defense technology, combined with the existing technical foundation, this article discusses suggestions for developing effective asteroid defense and briefly describes the current status of the development of near-Earth asteroid defense.