A Multi-functional Paintball Cloud for Asteroid Deflection

Abstract

deweck@mit.edu2, ranohkim@gmail.com3 In this paper, the so-called “smart cloud” concept for asteroid deflection is further developed by (1) utilizing each particle as a container for paint powder and (2) deploying multiple “paintball” clouds to paint the entire surface of an asteroid. This permits deflecting an asteroid by means of a low-thrust, long-duration solar radiation pressure as well as kinetic impacts from the paintball clouds themselves. Additional deflection achievable with this albedo-changing strategy is investigated for a sample case of 99942 Apophis. Further applications of multi-functional clouds and future work are also discussed.