1. Driving Instructors Are The First Line Of Defense Against Unsafe Drivers
2. First Line Of Defense Against Unsafe Drivers
3. First Line Of Defense Against Unsafe Drivers

1. The purpose of drivers licensing is to ensure that: B. No driver is an undue risk to themselves or others. ________are the first line of defense against unsafe drivers. Peace officers. The National Highway Traffic Safety Admininstration is responsible for: C.conducting studying on collections to understand their causes.
2. PPE is considered the last line of defense. It is equipment that is worn to minimize exposure to a variety of hazards. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), PPE is used by 20 million workers and is very important, but according to OSHA it must be considered last after all engineering and administrative/work practice.

Learn defensive driving safety tips, which is important to practice any time you're on the road but especially during the heavy-traffic holidays. Planning: The First Line of Defense. According to the National Safety. The NSC has identified six unsafe driving behaviors that most often lead to collisions.

Asteroid impact avoidance comprises a number of methods by which near-Earth objects (NEO) could be diverted, preventing destructive impact events. A sufficiently large impact by an asteroid or other NEOs would cause, depending on its impact location, massive tsunamis, multiple firestorms and an impact winter caused by the sunlight-blocking effect of placing large quantities of pulverized rock dust, and other debris, into the stratosphere.

A collision 66 million years ago between the Earth and an object approximately 10 kilometres (6 miles) wide is thought to have produced the Chicxulub crater and the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, widely held responsible for the extinction of most dinosaurs.

While the chances of a major collision are low in the near term, there is a certainty that one will happen eventually unless defensive actions are taken. Astronomical events—such as the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts on Jupiter and the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor, along with the growing number of objects on the Sentry Risk Table—have drawn renewed attention to such threats.

In 2016, a NASA scientist warned that the Earth is unprepared for such an event.^[1] In April 2018, the B612 Foundation reported 'It's 100 per cent certain we'll be hit [by a devastating asteroid], but we're not 100 per cent sure when.'^[2][3] Also in 2018, physicistStephen Hawking, in his final book Brief Answers to the Big Questions, considered an asteroid collision to be the biggest threat to the planet.^[4][5][6] Several ways of avoiding an asteroid impact have been described.^[7] Nonetheless, in March 2019, scientists reported that asteroids may be much more difficult to destroy than thought earlier.^[8][9] In addition, an asteroid may reassemble itself due to gravity after being disrupted.^[10]

• 1Deflection efforts
  • 1.2Ongoing projects
• 3Collision avoidance strategies
  • 3.1Nuclear explosive device
• 6Fictional representations

Deflection efforts[edit]

According to expert testimony in the United States Congress in 2013, NASA would require at least five years of preparation before a mission to intercept an asteroid could be launched.^[11] In June 2018, the US National Science and Technology Council warned that America is unprepared for an asteroid impact event, and developed and released the 'National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy Action Plan' to better prepare.^{[12][13][14][15][16]}

Driving Instructors Are The First Line Of Defense Against Unsafe Drivers

Most deflection efforts for a large object require from a year to decades of warning, allowing time to prepare and carry out a collision avoidance project, as no known planetary defense hardware has yet been developed. It has been estimated that a velocity change of just 3.5/t × 10⁻² m·s⁻¹ (where t is the number of years until potential impact) is needed to successfully deflect a body on a direct collision trajectory. In addition, under certain circumstances, much smaller velocity changes are needed.^[17] For example, it was estimated there was a high chance of 99942 Apophis swinging by Earth in 2029 with a 10⁻⁴ probability of passing through a 'keyhole' and returning on an impact trajectory in 2035 or 2036. It was then determined that a deflection from this potential return trajectory, several years before the swing-by, could be achieved with a velocity change on the order of 10⁻⁶ ms⁻¹.^[18]

An impact by a 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) asteroid on the Earth has historically caused an extinction-level event due to catastrophic damage to the biosphere. There is also the threat from comets entering the inner Solar System. The impact speed of a long-period comet would likely be several times greater than that of a near-Earth asteroid, making its impact much more destructive; in addition, the warning time is unlikely to be more than a few months.^[19] Impacts from objects as small as 50 metres (160 ft) in diameter, which are far more common, are historically extremely destructive regionally (see Barringer crater).

Finding out the material composition of the object is also helpful before deciding which strategy is appropriate. Missions like the 2005 Deep Impact probe have provided valuable information on what to expect.

History of government mandates[edit]

Efforts in asteroid impact prediction have concentrated on the survey method. The 1992 NASA-sponsored Near-Earth-Object Interception Workshop hosted by Los Alamos National Laboratory evaluated issues involved in intercepting celestial objects that could hit Earth.^[20] In a 1992 report to NASA,^[21] a coordinated Spaceguard Survey was recommended to discover, verify and provide follow-up observations for Earth-crossing asteroids. This survey was expected to discover 90% of these objects larger than one kilometer within 25 years. Three years later, another NASA report^[22] recommended search surveys that would discover 60–70% of short-period, near-Earth objects larger than one kilometer within ten years and obtain 90% completeness within five more years.

In 1998, NASA formally embraced the goal of finding and cataloging, by 2008, 90% of all near-Earth objects (NEOs) with diameters of 1 km or larger that could represent a collision risk to Earth. The 1 km diameter metric was chosen after considerable study indicated that an impact of an object smaller than 1 km could cause significant local or regional damage but is unlikely to cause a worldwide catastrophe.^[21] The impact of an object much larger than 1 km diameter could well result in worldwide damage up to, and potentially including, extinction of the human species. The NASA commitment has resulted in the funding of a number of NEO search efforts, which made considerable progress toward the 90% goal by 2008. However the 2009 discovery of several NEOs approximately 2 to 3 kilometers in diameter (e.g. 2009 CR₂, 2009 HC₈₂, 2009 KJ, 2009 MS and 2009 OG) demonstrated there were still large objects to be detected.

United States Representative George E. Brown, Jr. (D-CA) was quoted as voicing his support for planetary defense projects in Air & Space Power Chronicles, saying 'If some day in the future we discover well in advance that an asteroid that is big enough to cause a mass extinction is going to hit the Earth, and then we alter the course of that asteroid so that it does not hit us, it will be one of the most important accomplishments in all of human history.'

Because of Congressman Brown's long-standing commitment to planetary defense, a U.S. House of Representatives' bill, H.R. 1022, was named in his honor: The George E. Brown, Jr. Near-Earth Object Survey Act. This bill 'to provide for a Near-Earth Object Survey program to detect, track, catalogue, and characterize certain near-Earth asteroids and comets' was introduced in March 2005 by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA).^[23] It was eventually rolled into S.1281, the NASA Authorization Act of 2005, passed by Congress on December 22, 2005, subsequently signed by the President, and stating in part:

The U.S. Congress has declared that the general welfare and security of the United States require that the unique competence of NASA be directed to detecting, tracking, cataloguing, and characterizing near-Earth asteroids and comets in order to provide warning and mitigation of the potential hazard of such near-Earth objects to the Earth. The NASA Administrator shall plan, develop, and implement a Near-Earth Object Survey program to detect, track, catalogue, and characterize the physical characteristics of near- Earth objects equal to or greater than 140 meters in diameter in order to assess the threat of such near-Earth objects to the Earth. It shall be the goal of the Survey program to achieve 90% completion of its near-Earth object catalogue (based on statistically predicted populations of near-Earth objects) within 15 years after the date of enactment of this Act. The NASA Administrator shall transmit to Congress not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act an initial report that provides the following: (A) An analysis of possible alternatives that NASA may employ to carry out the Survey program, including ground-based and space-based alternatives with technical descriptions. (B) A recommended option and proposed budget to carry out the Survey program pursuant to the recommended option. (C) Analysis of possible alternatives that NASA could employ to divert an object on a likely collision course with Earth.

The result of this directive was a report presented to Congress in early March 2007. This was an Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) study led by NASA's Program Analysis and Evaluation (PA&E) office with support from outside consultants, the Aerospace Corporation, NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC), and SAIC (amongst others).

See also Improving impact prediction.

Ongoing projects[edit]

The Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts has been cataloging the orbits of asteroids and comets since 1947. It has recently been joined by surveys that specialize in locating the near-Earth objects (NEO), many (as of early 2007) funded by NASA's Near Earth Object program office as part of their Spaceguard program. One of the best-known is LINEAR that began in 1996. By 2004 LINEAR was discovering tens of thousands of objects each year and accounting for 65% of all new asteroid detections.^[24] LINEAR uses two one-meter telescopes and one half-meter telescope based in New Mexico.^[25]

Spacewatch, which uses a 90 centimeter telescope sited at the Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona, updated with automatic pointing, imaging, and analysis equipment to search the skies for intruders, was set up in 1980 by Tom Gehrels and Robert S. McMillan of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona in Tucson, and is now being operated by McMillan. The Spacewatch project has acquired a 1.8 meter telescope, also at Kitt Peak, to hunt for NEOs, and has provided the old 90 centimeter telescope with an improved electronic imaging system with much greater resolution, improving its search capability.^[26]

Other near-Earth object tracking programs include Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT), Lowell Observatory Near-Earth-Object Search (LONEOS), Catalina Sky Survey, Campo Imperatore Near-Earth Object Survey (CINEOS), Japanese Spaceguard Association, and Asiago-DLR Asteroid Survey.^[27]Pan-STARRS completed telescope construction in 2010, and it is now actively observing.

The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, now in operation, conducts frequent scans of the sky with a view to later-stage detection on the collision stretch of the asteroid orbit. Those would be much too late for deflection, but still in time for evacuation and preparation of the affected Earth region.

Another project, supported by the European Union, is NEOShield,^[28] which analyses realistic options for preventing the collision of a NEO with Earth. Their aim is to provide test mission designs for feasible NEO mitigation concepts.The project particularly emphasises on two aspects.^[28]

1. The first one is the focus on technological development on essential techniques and instruments needed for guidance, navigation and control (GNC) in close vicinity of asteroids and comets. This will, for example, allow hitting such bodies with a high-velocity kinetic impactor spacecraft and observing them before, during and after a mitigation attempt, e.g., for orbit determination and monitoring.
2. The second one focuses on refining Near Earth Object (NEO) characterisation. Moreover, NEOShield-2 will carry out astronomical observations of NEOs, to improve the understanding of their physical properties, concentrating on the smaller sizes of most concern for mitigation purposes, and to identify further objects suitable for missions for physical characterisation and NEO deflection demonstration.^[29]

'Spaceguard' is the name for these loosely affiliated programs, some of which receive NASA funding to meet a U.S. Congressional requirement to detect 90% of near-Earth asteroids over 1 km diameter by 2008.^[30] A 2003 NASA study of a follow-on program suggests spending US$250–450 million to detect 90% of all near-Earth asteroids 140 meters and larger by 2028.^[31]

NEODyS is an online database of known NEOs.

Sentinel Mission[edit]

The B612 Foundation is a private nonprofitfoundation with headquarters in the United States, dedicated to protecting the Earth from asteroid strikes. It is led mainly by scientists, former astronauts and engineers from the Institute for Advanced Study, Southwest Research Institute, Stanford University, NASA and the space industry.

As a non-governmental organization it has conducted two lines of related research to help detect NEOs that could one day strike the Earth, and find the technological means to divert their path to avoid such collisions. The foundation's current goal is to design and build a privately financed asteroid-finding space telescope, Sentinel, to be launched in 2017–2018. The Sentinel's infrared telescope, once parked in an orbit similar to that of Venus, will help identify threatening NEOs by cataloging 90% of those with diameters larger than 140 metres (460 ft), as well as surveying smaller Solar System objects.^[32][33][34]

Data gathered by Sentinel will help identify asteroids and other NEOs that pose a risk of collision with Earth, by being forwarded to scientific only loosely held together by gravity, and a typical spacecraft sized kinetic-impactor deflection attempt might just break up the object or fragment it without sufficiently adjusting its course.^[54] If an asteroid breaks into fragments, any fragment larger than 35 meters across would not burn up in the atmosphere and itself could impact Earth. Tracking the thousands of buckshot-like fragments that could result from such an explosion would be a very daunting task, although fragmentation would be preferable to doing nothing and allowing the originally larger rubble body, which is analogous to a shot and wax slug, to impact the Earth.

In Cielo simulations conducted in 2011–2012, in which the rate and quantity of energy delivery were sufficiently high and matched to the size of the rubble pile, such as following a tailored nuclear explosion, results indicated that any asteroid fragments, created after the pulse of energy is delivered, would not pose a threat of re-coalescing (including for those with the shape of asteroid Itokawa) but instead would rapidly achieve escape velocity from their parent body (which for Itokawa is about 0.2 m/s) and therefore move out of an earth-impact trajectory.^[55][56][57]

Nuclear explosive device[edit]

Initiating a nuclear explosive device above, on, or slightly beneath, the surface of a threatening celestial body is a potential deflection option, with the optimal detonation height dependent upon the composition and size of the object.^[62][63][64] It does not require the entire NEO to be vaporized to mitigate an impact threat. In the case of an inbound threat from a 'rubble pile,' the stand off, or detonation height above the surface configuration, has been put forth as a means to prevent the potential fracturing of the rubble pile.^[65] The energetic neutrons and soft X-rays released by the detonation, which do not appreciably penetrate matter,^[66] are converted into thermal heat upon encountering the object's surface matter, ablatively vaporizing all line of sight exposed surface areas of the object to a shallow depth,^[65] turning the surface material it heats up into ejecta, and, analogous to the ejecta from a chemical rocket engine exhaust, changing the velocity, or 'nudging', the object off course by the reaction, following Newton's third law, with ejecta going one way and the object being propelled in the other.^[65][67] Depending on the energy of the explosive device, the resulting rocket exhaust effect, created by the high velocity of the asteroid's vaporized mass ejecta, coupled with the object's small reduction in mass, would produce enough of a change in the object's orbit to make it miss the Earth.^[55][67]

A Hypervelocity Asteroid Mitigation Mission for Emergency Response (HAMMER) has been proposed.^[68]

Stand-off approach[edit]

If the object is very large but is still a loosely-held-together rubble pile, a solution is to detonate one or a series of nuclear explosive devices alongside the asteroid, at a 20-meter (66 ft) or greater stand-off height above its surface,^{[citation needed]} so as not to fracture the potentially loosely-held-together object. Providing that this stand-off strategy was done far enough in advance, the force from a sufficient number of nuclear blasts would alter the object's trajectory enough to avoid an impact, according to computer simulations and experimental evidence from meteorites exposed to the thermal X-ray pulses of the Z-machine.^[69]

In 1967, graduate students under Professor Paul Sandorff at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were tasked with designing a method to prevent a hypothetical 18-month distant impact on Earth by the 1.4-kilometer-wide (0.87 mi) asteroid 1566 Icarus, an object that makes regular close approaches to Earth, sometimes as close as 16 lunar distances.^[70] To achieve the task within the timeframe and with limited material knowledge of the asteroid's composition, a variable stand-off system was conceived. This would have used a number of modified Saturn V rockets sent on interception courses and the creation of a handful of nuclear explosive devices in the 100-megaton energy range—coincidentally, the same as the maximum yield of the Soviets' Tsar Bomba would have been if a uranium tamper had been used—as each rocket vehicle's payload.^[71][72] The design study was later published as Project Icarus^[73] which served as the inspiration for the 1979 film Meteor.^[72][74][75]

A NASA analysis of deflection alternatives, conducted in 2007, stated:

Nuclear standoff explosions are assessed to be 10–100 times more effective than the non-nuclear alternatives analyzed in this study. Other techniques involving the surface or subsurface use of nuclear explosives may be more efficient, but they run an increased risk of fracturing the target NEO. They also carry higher development and operations risks.^[76]

In the same year, NASA released a study where the asteroid Apophis (with a diameter of around 300 metres or 1,000 feet) was assumed to have a much lower rubble pile density (1,500 kg/m³ or 100 lb/cu ft) and therefore lower mass than it is now known to have, and in the study, it is assumed to be on an impact trajectory with Earth for the year 2029. Under these hypothetical conditions, the report determines that a 'Cradle spacecraft' would be sufficient to deflect it from Earth impact. This conceptual spacecraft contains six B83 physics packages, each set for their maximum 1.2-megatonne yield,^[77] bundled together and lofted by an Ares V vehicle sometime in the 2020s, with each B83 being fuzed to detonate over the asteroid's surface at a height of 100 metres or 330 feet ('1/3 of the objects diameter' as its stand-off), one after the other, with hour-long intervals between each detonation. The results of this study indicated that a single employment of this option 'can deflect NEOs of [100–500 metres or 330–1,640 feet diameter] two years before impact, and larger NEOs with at least five years warning'.^[78][79] These effectiveness figures are considered to be 'conservative' by its authors, and only the thermal X-ray output of the B83 devices was considered, while neutron heating was neglected for ease of calculation purposes.^[79][80]

Surface and subsurface use[edit]

In 2011, the director of the Asteroid Deflection Research Center at Iowa State University, Wie (who had published kinetic impactor deflection studies^[54] previously), began to study strategies that could deal with 50-to-500-metre-diameter (200–1,600 ft) objects when the time to Earth impact was less than one year. He concluded that to provide the required energy, a nuclear explosion or other event that could deliver the same power, are the only methods that can work against a very large asteroid within these time constraints.

This work resulted in the creation of a conceptual Hypervelocity Asteroid Intercept Vehicle (HAIV), which combines a kinetic impactor to create an initial crater for a follow-up subsurface nuclear detonation within that initial crater, which would generate a high degree of efficiency in the conversion of the nuclear energy that is released in the detonation into propulsion energy to the asteroid.^[81]

A similar proposal would use a surface-detonating nuclear device in place of the kinetic impactor to create the initial crater, then using the crater as a rocket nozzle to channel succeeding nuclear detonations.

At the 2014 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) conference, Wie and his colleagues stated that 'we have the solution, using our baseline concept, to be able to mitigate the asteroid-impact threat, with any range of warning.' For example, according to their computer models, with a warning time of 30 days, a 300-metre-wide (1,000 ft) asteroid would be neutralized^[vague] by using a single HAIV, with less than 0.1% of the destroyed object's mass potentially striking Earth, which by comparison would be more than acceptable.^{[further explanation needed][82][83]}

As of 2015, Wie has collaborated with the Danish Emergency Asteroid Defence Project (EADP),^[84] which ultimately intends to crowdsource sufficient funds to design, build, and store a non-nuclear HAIV spacecraft as planetary insurance. For threatening asteroids too large and/or too close to Earth impact to effectively be deflected by the non-nuclear HAIV approach, nuclear explosive devices (with 5% of the explosive yield than those used for the stand-off strategy) are intended to be swapped in, under international oversight, when conditions arise that necessitate it.^[85]

Comet deflection possibility[edit]

Following the 1994 Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet impacts with Jupiter, Edward Teller proposed, to a collective of U.S. and Russian ex-Cold War weapons designers in a 1995 planetary defense workshop meeting at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), that they collaborate to design a one-gigaton nuclear explosive device, which would be equivalent to the kinetic energy of a one-kilometer-diameter (0.62 mi) asteroid.^[86][87][88] The theoretical one-gigaton device would weigh about 25–30 tons, light enough to be lifted on the Energia rocket. It could be used to instantaneously vaporize a one-kilometre (0.62 mi) asteroid, divert the paths of extinction event class asteroids (greater than 10 kilometres or 6.2 miles in diameter) within short notice of a few months. With one year of notice, and at an interception location no closer than Jupiter, it could also deal with the even rarer short period comets that can come out of the Kuiper belt and transit past Earth orbit within two years.^{[clarification needed]} For comets of this class, with a maximum estimated diameter of 100 kilometers (62 mi), Charon served as the hypothetical threat.^[86][87][88]

In 2013, the related National Laboratories of the US and Russia signed a deal that includes an intent to cooperate on defense from asteroids.^[89]

Present capability[edit]

An April 2014 GAO report notes that the NNSA is retaining canned subassemblies (CSAs) ' in an indeterminate state pending a senior-level government evaluation of their use in planetary defense against earthbound asteroids.'^[90] In its FY2015 budget request, the NNSA noted that the nine-megaton B53 component disassembly was 'delayed', leading some observers to conclude they might be the warhead CSAs being retained for potential planetary defense purposes.^{[91][failed verification]} Following the total disassembly of all 25 Mt high-yield B41s in 1976, the B53 is the highest yielding US device presently in the Enduring Stockpile.

Law[edit]

The use of nuclear explosive devices is an international issue and will need to be addressed^{[according to whom?]} by the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. The 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty technically bans nuclear weapons in space. However, it is unlikely that a nuclear explosive device, fuzed to be detonated only upon interception with a threatening celestial object,^[92] with the sole intent of preventing that celestial body from impacting Earth would be regarded as an un-peaceful use of space, or that the explosive device sent to mitigate an Earth impact, explicitly designed to prevent harm to come to life, would fall under the classification of a 'weapon'.^[93]

Kinetic impact[edit]

The impact of a massive object, such as a spacecraft or even another near-Earth object, is another possible solution to a pending NEO impact. An object with a high mass close to the Earth could be sent out into a collision course with the asteroid, knocking it off course.

When the asteroid is still far from the Earth, a means of deflecting the asteroid is to directly alter its momentum by colliding a spacecraft with the asteroid.

A NASA analysis of deflection alternatives, conducted in 2007, stated:

Non-nuclear kinetic impactors are the most mature approach and could be used in some deflection/mitigation scenarios, especially for NEOs that consist of a single small, solid body.^[76]

The European Space Agency (ESA) is studying the preliminary design of two space missions for ~2020, named AIDA (formerly Don Quijote), and if flown, they would be the first intentional asteroid deflection mission. ESA's Advanced Concepts Team has also demonstrated theoretically that a deflection of 99942 Apophis could be achieved by sending a simple spacecraft^[when?] weighing less than one ton to impact against the asteroid. During a trade-off study one of the leading researchers^[who?] argued that a strategy called 'kinetic impactor deflection' was more efficient than others.^[dubious]

The European Union's NEOShield-2 Mission^[101] is also primarily studying the Kinetic Impactor mitigation method. The principle of the kinetic impactor mitigation method is that the NEO or Asteroid is deflected following an impact from an impactor spacecraft. The principle of momentum transfer is used, as the impactor crashes into the NEO at a very high velocity of 10 km/s (36,000 km/h; 22,000 mph) or more. The momentum of the impactor is transferred to the NEO, causing a change in velocity and therefore making it deviate from its course slightly.^[102]

As of mid-2018, the AIDA mission has been partly approved. The NASA Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) kinetic impactor spacecraft has entered phase C (detailed definition). The goal is to impact the 180-meter (590 ft) asteroidal moon of near-Earth Asteroid 65803 Didymos, nicknamed Didymoon. The impact will occur in October 2022 when Didymos is relatively close to Earth, allowing Earth-based telescopes and planetary radar to observe the event. The result of the impact will be to change the orbital velocity and hence orbital period of Didymoon, by a large enough amount that it can be measured from Earth. This will show for the first time that it is possible to change the orbit of a small 200-meter (660 ft) asteroid, around the size most likely to require active mitigation in the future. The second part of the AIDA mission–the ESA HERA spacecraft–has entered phase B (Preliminary Definition) and requires approval by ESA member states in October 2019. If approved, it would reach the Didymos system in 2024 and measure both the mass of Didymoon and the precise effect of the impact on that body, allowing much better extrapolation of the AIDA mission to other targets.

Asteroid gravity tractor[edit]

Another alternative to explosive deflection is to move the asteroid slowly over time. A small but constant amount of thrust accumulates to deviate an object sufficiently from its course. Edward T. Lu and Stanley G. Love have proposed using a massive unmanned spacecraft hovering over an asteroid to gravitationally pull the asteroid into a non-threatening orbit. Though both objects are gravitationally pulled towards each other, the spacecraft can counter the force towards the asteroid by, for example, an ion thruster, so the net effect would be that the asteroid is accelerated towards the spacecraft and thus slightly deflected from its orbit. While slow, this method has the advantage of working irrespective of the asteroid's composition or spin rate; rubble pile asteroids would be difficult to deflect by means of nuclear detonations, while a pushing device would be hard or inefficient to mount on a fast-rotating asteroid. A gravity tractor would likely have to spend several years beside the asteroid to be effective.

A NASA analysis of deflection alternatives, conducted in 2007, stated:

'Slow push' mitigation techniques are the most expensive, have the lowest level of technical readiness, and their ability to both travel to and divert a threatening NEO would be limited unless mission durations of many years to decades are possible.^[76]

Ion beam shepherd[edit]

Another 'contactless' asteroid deflection technique has been proposed by C.Bombardelli and J.Peláez from the Technical University of Madrid. The method involves the use of a low-divergence ion thruster pointed at the asteroid from a nearby hovering spacecraft. The momentum transmitted by the ions reaching the asteroid surface produces a slow-but-continuous force that can deflect the asteroid in a similar way as the gravity tractor, but with a lighter spacecraft.

Use of focused solar energy[edit]

H. Jay Melosh proposed deflecting an asteroid or comet by focusing solar energy onto its surface to create thrust from the resulting vaporization of material, or to amplify the Yarkovsky effect. Over a span of months or years, enough solar radiation can be directed onto the object to deflect it.^{[citation needed]}

This method would require the construction of a space station with a system of gigantic lenses. The station would then be transported toward the Sun.

Mass driver[edit]

A mass driver is an (automated) system on the asteroid to eject material into space thus giving the object a slow steady push and decreasing its mass. A mass driver is designed to work as a very low specific impulse system, which in general uses a lot of propellant, but very little power.

The idea is that when using local material as propellant, the amount of propellant is not as important as the amount of power, which is likely to be limited.

Another possibility is to use a mass driver on the Moon aimed at the NEO to take advantage of the Moon's orbital velocity and inexhaustible supply of 'rock bullets'.^{[citation needed]}

Conventional rocket engine[edit]

Attaching any spacecraft propulsion device would have a similar effect of giving a push, possibly forcing the asteroid onto a trajectory that takes it away from Earth. An in-space rocket engine that is capable of imparting an impulse of 10⁶ N·s (E.g. adding 1 km/s to a 1000 kg vehicle), will have a relatively small effect on a relatively small asteroid that has a mass of roughly a million times more. Chapman, Durda, and Gold's white paper^[103] calculates deflections using existing chemical rockets delivered to the asteroid.

Such direct force rocket engines are typically proposed to use highly-efficient electrically powered spacecraft propulsion, such as ion thrusters or VASIMR.

Asteroid laser ablation[edit]

Similar to the effects of a nuclear device, it is thought possible to focus sufficient laser energy on the surface of an asteroid to cause flash vaporization / ablation to create either in impulse or to ablate away the asteroid mass. This concept, called asteroid laser ablation was articulated in the 1995 SpaceCast 2020^[105] white paper 'Preparing for Planetary Defense',^[106] and the 1996 Air Force 2025^[105] white paper 'Planetary Defense: Catastrophic Health Insurance for Planet Earth'.^[107] Early publications include C. R. Phipps 'ORION' concept from 1996, Colonel Jonathan W. Campbell's 2000 monograph 'Using Lasers in Space: Laser Orbital Debris Removal and Asteroid Deflection',^[108] and NASA's 2005 concept Comet Asteroid Protection System (CAPS).^[109] Typically such systems require a significant amount of power, such as would be available from a Space-Based Solar Power Satellite.

Another proposal is the Phillip Lubin's DE-STAR^[111] proposal.

• The DE-STAR project,^[112] proposed by researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is a concept modular solar powered 1 µm, near infrared wavelength, laser array. The design calls for the array to eventually be approximately 1 km squared in size, with the modular design meaning that it could be launched in increments and assembled in space. In its early stages as a small array it could deal with smaller targets, assist solar sail probes and would also be useful in cleaning up space debris.

Other proposals[edit]

• Wrapping the asteroid in a sheet of reflective plastic such as aluminized PET film as a solar sail
• 'Painting' or dusting the object with titanium dioxide (white) to alter its trajectory via increased reflected radiation pressure or with soot (black) to alter its trajectory via the Yarkovsky effect.
• Planetary scientistEugene Shoemaker in 1996 proposed^[113] deflecting a potential impactor by releasing a cloud of steam in the path of the object, hopefully gently slowing it. Nick Szabo in 1990 sketched^[114] a similar idea, 'cometary aerobraking', the targeting of a comet or ice construct at an asteroid, then vaporizing the ice with nuclear explosives to form a temporary atmosphere in the path of the asteroid.
• Coherent digger array^[115][116] multiple 1 ton flat tractors able to dig and expel asteroid soil mass as a coherent fountain array, coordinated fountain activity may propel and deflect over years.
• Attaching a tether and ballast mass to the asteroid to alter its trajectory by changing its center of mass.^[117]
• Magnetic Flux Compression to magnetically brake and or capture objects that contain a high percentage of meteoric iron by deploying a wide coil of wire in its orbital path and when it passes through, Inductance creates an electromagnet solenoid to be generated.^[118][119]

Deflection technology concerns[edit]

Carl Sagan, in his book Pale Blue Dot, expressed concern about deflection technology, noting that any method capable of deflecting impactors away from Earth could also be abused to divert non-threatening bodies toward the planet. Considering the history of genocidal political leaders and the possibility of the bureaucratic obscuring of any such project's true goals to most of its scientific participants, he judged the Earth at greater risk from a man-made impact than a natural one. Sagan instead suggested that deflection technology be developed only in an actual emergency situation.

All low-energy delivery deflection technologies have inherent fine control and steering capability, making it possible to add just the right amount of energy to steer an asteroid originally destined for a mere close approach toward a specific Earth target.

According to Rusty Schweickart, the gravitational tractor method is controversial because, during the process of changing an asteroid's trajectory, the point on the Earth where it could most likely hit would be slowly shifted across different countries. Thus, the threat for the entire planet would be minimized at the cost of some specific states' security. In Schweickart's opinion, choosing the way the asteroid should be 'dragged' would be a tough diplomatic decision.^[120]

Analysis of the uncertainty involved in nuclear deflection shows that the ability to protect the planet does not imply the ability to target the planet. A nuclear explosion that changes an asteroid's velocity by 10 meters/second (plus or minus 20%) would be adequate to push it out of an Earth-impacting orbit. However, if the uncertainty of the velocity change was more than a few percent, there would be no chance of directing the asteroid to a particular target.

Planetary defense timeline[edit]

• In their 1964 book, Islands in Space,Dandridge M. Cole and Donald W. Cox noted the dangers of planetoid impacts, both those occurring naturally and those that might be brought about with hostile intent. They argued for cataloging the minor planets and developing the technologies to land on, deflect, or even capture planetoids.^[121]
• In 1967, students in the Aeronautics and Astronautics department at MIT did a design study, 'Project Icarus,' of a mission to prevent a hypothetical impact on Earth by asteroid 1566 Icarus.^[72] The design project was later published in a book by the MIT Press^[73] and received considerable publicity, for the first time bringing asteroid impact into the public eye.^[71]
• In the 1980s NASA studied evidence of past strikes on planet Earth, and the risk of this happening at the current level of civilization. This led to a program that maps objects in the Solar System that both cross Earth's orbit and are large enough to cause serious damage if they hit.
• In the 1990s, US Congress held hearings to consider the risks and what needed to be done about them. This led to a US$3 million annual budget for programs like Spaceguard and the near-Earth object program, as managed by NASA and USAF.
• In 2005 a number of astronauts published an open letter through the Association of Space Explorers calling for a united push to develop strategies to protect Earth from the risk of a cosmic collision.^[122]
• It is currently (as of late 2007) estimated that there are approximately 20,000 objects capable of crossing Earth's orbit and large enough (140 meters or larger) to warrant concern.^[123] On the average, one of these will collide with Earth every 5,000 years, unless preventative measures are undertaken.^[124] It is now anticipated that by year 2008, 90% of such objects that are 1 km or more in diameter will have been identified and will be monitored. The further task of identifying and monitoring all such objects of 140m or greater is expected to be complete around 2020.^[124]
• The Catalina Sky Survey^[125] (CSS) is one of NASA´s four funded surveys to carry out a 1998 U.S. Congress mandate to find and catalog by the end of 2008, at least 90 percent of all near-Earth objects (NEOs) larger than 1 kilometer across. CSS discovered over 1150 NEOs in years 2005 to 2007. In doing this survey they discovered on November 20, 2007, an asteroid, designated 2007 WD₅, which initially was estimated to have a chance of hitting Mars on January 30, 2008, but further observations during the following weeks allowed NASA to rule out an impact.^[126] NASA estimated a near miss by 26,000 kilometres (16,000 mi).^[127]
• In January 2012, after a near pass-by of object 2012 BX34, a paper entitled 'A Global Approach to Near-Earth Object Impact Threat Mitigation,' was released by researchers from Russia, Germany, the United States, France, Britain, and Spain, which discusses the 'NEOShield' project.^[128][129]

Fictional representations[edit]

Asteroid or comet impacts are a common subgenre of disaster fiction, and such stories typically feature some attempt—successful or unsuccessful—to prevent the catastrophe. Most involve trying to destroy or explosively redirect an object. (See also Asteroids in fiction –Collisions with Earth).

Film[edit]

• When Worlds Collide (1951): A science fiction film based on the 1933 novel; shot in Technicolor, directed by Rudolph Maté and the winner of the 1952 Academy Awards for special effects.
• 1979 film Meteor, based on the MIT Project Icarus study.^[72][75]
• Armageddon (1998): A pair of modified Space Shuttle orbiters, called 'X-71s', and the Mir are used to drill a hole in an asteroid and plant a nuclear bomb.
• Deep Impact (1998): A manned spacecraft, the Messiah, based on Project Orion, plants a number of nuclear bombs on a comet.
• Melancholia (2011): The film's story revolves around two sisters, one of whom is preparing to marry, as a rogue planet is about to collide with Earth.
• Seeking A Friend For The End Of The World (2012): After several unsuccessful attempts to stop an asteroid, humanity is given only three weeks to live, sending the world into sheer chaos, and bringing two unlikely people together in the wake of annihilation.
• These Final Hours (2013): Two lovers and the inhabitants of Perth, Australia await a cataclysmic firestorm caused by the impact of an asteroid in the North Atlantic.
• Tik Tik Tik (2018): There is space station with a nuclear missile that can destroy the rogue asteroid. The in-charge of that space station seems to be in a quarrel with India. So, they enlist the service of a local magician to go into space and save the lives of millions of Indians

Literature[edit]

• Lucifer's Hammer (1977): A comet, which was initially thought unlikely to strike, hits the Earth, resulting in the end of civilization and a decline into tribal warfare over food and resources. Written by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
• The Hammer of God (1993): A spacecraft is sent to divert a massive asteroid by using thrusters. Written by Arthur C. Clarke.
• Titan (1997): The Chinese, to retaliate for biological attacks by the US, cause a huge explosion next to an asteroid (2002OA), to deflect it into Earth orbit while threatening the world with future targeted precision strikes. Their calculations are wrong, however, as they didn't take into account the size of the asteroid—which could cause a Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. The asteroid strikes Earth, critically damaging the planetary ecosystem. Written by Stephen Baxter.
• Moonfall (1998): A comet is in collision course with the Moon. After the collision, the debris start falling on Earth. Written by Jack McDevitt.
• Nemesis (1998): The US government gathers a small team, including a British astronomer, with instructions to find and deflect an asteroid already targeted at North America by the Russians. Written by British astronomer Bill Napier.

Television[edit]

• Star Trek: In 'The Paradise Syndrome' (1968), an amnesiacKirk finds a centuries-old obelisk that contains a deflector beam to deflect a coming asteroid to wipe out a primitive race.
• Horizon: Hunt for the Doomsday Asteroid (1994), a BBC documentary, part of the Horizon science series, Season 30, Episode 7.
• NOVA: Doomsday Asteroid (1995), a PBSNOVA science documentary, Series 23, Episode 4.
• Futurama: The episode 'A Big Piece of Garbage' (1999), features a large space object on a collision course with Earth that turns out to be a giant ball of garbage launched into space by New York City around 2052. Residents of New New York first try blowing up the ball to destroy it but fail as the rocket is absorbed by the ball. They then deflect it using a newly created near-identical garbage ball.
• Defenders of the Planet (2001), a three-part British TV mini-series discussing the individuals and organizations working to defend the Earth against killer asteroids and other extraterrestrial threats; broadcast on The Learning Channel.^[130]
• Danny Phantom: In the series finale episodes 'Phantom Planet' an asteroid is on a collision course with Earth. Danny convinces Earth's ghosts to turn the Earth intangible, avoiding disaster.
• The Sarah Jane Adventures: In 'Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?' (2007), a meteor on a collision course with the Earth is ultimately deflected back into space by Sarah Jane's alien computer, Mr. Smith.
• You, Me and the Apocalypse: In this series, a comet is on a collision course with the Earth and collides after a failed attempt to deflect said comet.
• One-Punch Man: The episode 'The Ultimate Disciple' features the superheroesGenos and Metal Knight attempting to destroy a meteor on a collision course with a city. After failing to do so, the titular superhero Saitama destroys the meteor in one punch, inadvertently causing the meteor to shatter in smaller pieces, devastating the city.
• Salvation (2017) centers on the ramifications of the discovery of an asteroid that will impact the Earth in just six months and the attempts to prevent it.

Video games[edit]

• Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies (2001): In this combat flight simulator for the PlayStation 2 by Namco, a railgun battery is used in an attempt to destroy a massive asteroid with limited success.
• Mass Effect (2007): The 'Bring Down the Sky' expansion features an alien extremist group that attempts to hijack an asteroid station and set it on a collision course with a human colony.
• Outpost (1994): The game's plot mentions how an attempt to divert the path of the asteroid Vulcan's Hammer, in collision course with Earth, using a nuclear weapon fails and instead causes it to break in two large pieces that strike Earth.
• In Terminal Velocity, the aggressors install an ion drive on Ceres to direct it towards Earth.
• In Fate/Grand Order, an immortal Qin Shi Huang who continued ruling up to 2018 AD in an alternate timeline had developed a planetary defense system named Grear Wall, which captures meteoroids and drops them at villages he finds unruly.

See also[edit]

• Near-Earth Asteroid Scout, proposed cubesat

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128. ^Leonard David. Asteroid Threat to Earth Sparks Global 'NEOShield' ProjectArchived March 9, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, SPACE.com, 26 January 2012.
129. ^Bus-sized asteroid buzzes Earth today passing within 36,000 miles of our atmosphereArchived January 28, 2012, at Archive-It, DailyMail online, 27 January 2012.
130. ^Defenders Of The PlanetArchived February 1, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Off The Fence website. Retrieved April 20, 2013.

Bibliography

• Luis Alvarez et al. 1980 paper in Science magazine on the great mass extinction 65 million years ago that led to the proliferation of mammal species such as the rise of the human race, thanks to asteroid-impact, a controversial theory in its day, now generally accepted.
• Izzo, D., Bourdoux, A., Walker, R. and Ongaro, F.; 'Optimal Trajectories for the Impulsive Deflection of NEOs'; Paper IAC-05-C1.5.06, 56th International Astronautical Congress, Fukuoka, Japan, (October 2005). Later published in Acta Astronautica, Vol. 59, No. 1-5, pp. 294–300, April 2006, available in esa.int – The first scientific paper proving that Apophis can be deflected by a small sized kinetic impactor.
• Clark R. Chapman, Daniel D. Durda & Robert E. Gold (February 24, 2001) Impact Hazard, a Systems Approach, white paper on public policy issues associated with the impact hazard, at boulder.swri.edu
• Donald W. Cox, and James H. Chestek. 1996. Doomsday Asteroid: Can We Survive? New York: Prometheus Books. ISBN1-57392-066-5. (Note that despite its sensationalist title, this is a good treatment of the subject and includes a nice discussion of the collateral space development possibilities.)
• David Morrison Is the Sky Falling?, Skeptical Inquirer 1997.
• Russell L. Schweickart, Edward T. Lu, Piet Hut and Clark R. Chapman; 'The Asteroid Tugboat'; Scientific American (November 2003).
• Kunio M. Sayanagi'How to Deflect an Asteroid'Ars Technica (April 2008).

Further reading[edit]

General

• Air Force 2025. Planetary Defense: Social, Economic, and Political Implications, United States Air Force, Air Force 2025 Final Report webpage, December 11, 1996.
• Belton, M.J.S. Mitigation of Hazardous Comets and Asteroids, Cambridge University Press, 2004, ISBN0521827647, ISBN978-0521827645
• Bottke, William F. Asteroids III (Space Science Series), University of Arizona space science series, University of Arizona Press, 2002, ISBN0816522812, ISBN978-0816522811
• Lewis, John S. Comet and Asteroid Impact Hazards on a Populated Earth: Computer Modeling (Volume 1 of Comet and Asteroid Impact Hazards on a Populated Earth: Computer Modeling), Academic Press, 2000, ISBN0124467601, ISBN978-0124467606
• Verschuur, Gerrit L. Impact!: The Threat of Comets and Asteroids, Oxford University Press, ISBN0195353277, 1997, ISBN978-0195353273
• Schmidt, Nikola et al.: Planetary Defense - Global Collaboration for Defending Earth from Asteroids and Comets. Springer, Cham 2019, ISBN978-3-030-00999-1.

External links[edit]

• 'Deflecting Asteroids,' (with solar sails) by Gregory L. Matloff, IEEE Spectrum, April 2012

Traveling throughout Florida can be just as fun as getting to your destination. During the holiday and vacation seasons, Florida’s roads can be some of the busiest in the country. The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) is committed to the safety of all motorists on our roads and educating everyone on safe driving to always Arrive Alive.

Slow Down, Stay Cool – Obey All Speed Limits

Speeding is against the law and extremely dangerous. Speeding reduces your ability to detect danger and react safely. Speeding also significantly reduces gas mileage and fines can cost more than $150. But most importantly, speeding kills an average of 300 people each year in Florida. No matter how eager you are to get to your destination, speeding and driving aggressively is dangerous.

If you observe aggressive driving:

• Don’t engage with the driver (this can result in road rage);
• Dial *FHP (*347) from your cell phone or 911 for local law enforcement;
• If possible, get the license plate and/or a brief description of the vehicle (color, type, doors, etc.);
• There is nothing wrong with safely pulling over and allowing distance between you and the aggressive driver but think safety first always.

Are you driving aggressively or speeding? Slow down and make sure you:

• Stay out of the “no zone” of trucks (blind spot of trucks);
• Don’t cut off vehicles;
• Leave room when changing lanes.
• Stay patient. Being patient is the key to ensure you’re not driving aggressively.

Obeying speed limits and reducing your speed in changing weather conditions reduces the probability and severity of a crash. All motorists must obey speed limits and are responsible for knowing the speed limit on the roadway.

First Line Of Defense Against Unsafe Drivers

Tire Safety and Vehicle Preparation

According to the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), drivers in the United States put more than 2,900 billion miles on their tires each year with approximately 11,000 tire-related crashes. Tires are your vehicle’s first line of defense on the road. To ensure everyone’s safety, regularly inspect and maintain your tires. Click here for tips on tire safety.

A recall is issued when a manufacturer or NHTSA determines that a vehicle, equipment, such as an airbag, car seat or tire creates an unreasonable safety risk or fails to meet minimum safety standards. A recall notice is sent from the manufacturer to the consumer. Manufacturers are required to fix the problem by repairing it, replacing it, offering a refund, or, in rare cases, repurchasing the vehicle. Be sure to check for recalls before you head out for summer travel. Click here for more information and to check if your vehicle has been issued a safety recall.

Safety Belts for Drivers and Passengers – Buckle Up

First Line Of Defense Against Unsafe Drivers

The Dori Slosberg and Katie Marchetti Safety Belt Law, effective June 30, 2009, requires that all drivers, all front seat passengers and all passengers under the age of 18, fasten their safety belts in Florida. Every time you get in a vehicle, no matter where you are sitting, buckle up. That click reduces your risk of being injured or killed in a crash by almost 50 percent.

Click here for more on why it’s so important to wear your seat belt. Click here for information on safety belts and child restraints.

Hurricane Season and Emergency Preparedness

Given its location and miles of coastline, Florida has seen more direct hits from hurricanes than any other state in the U.S. As residents move to the state and the population grows, many Floridians may be unprepared for such severe weather.

This year, get prepared early:

• Know your evacuation routes;
• Make sure your vehicle is properly maintained and road-ready;
• Check for vehicle and tire recalls and make any necessary repairs;
• Register your Emergency Contact Information (ECI);
• Be sure you know where to check for road closures; and
• Study up on best driving practices in inclement weather in case you have to drive.

Heat Stroke Prevention – Do Not Leave Children or Pets in a Car

Florida law states that a parent, legal guardian, or other person responsible for a child younger than six years of age must not leave the child unattended or unsupervised in a motor vehicle for a period in excess of 15 minutes or for any period of time if the motor of the vehicle is running, the health of the child is in danger, or the child appears to be in distress. For the safety of your children and pets, never leave a child or pet unattended in a vehicle, even for a short period of time. For more information click here.

• The inside of a vehicle can heat up by 20 degrees in just 10 minutes and cracking a window open does little to keep the vehicle cool.
• A child’s body temperature can rise three to five times faster than an adult’s and heatstroke in a closed vehicle can occur when the temperature is as low as 57 degrees outside.
• Since 1998, 84 child heatstroke deaths have occurred in Florida, more than any other state except Texas. Hundreds of pets die each year from heat exhaustion when left in vehicles.

If you see a child or pet locked in a hot car, take immediate action by calling 911. Florida law, section 768.139, Florida Statutes, provides for the rescue of a vulnerable person or domestic animal from a motor vehicle. These good Samaritans may have immunity for damage to the motor vehicle if:

• The vehicle is locked and there is no other reasonable way the person or animal to get out;
• Has reasonable belief based upon the circumstances that entry is necessary because the person or animal is in imminent danger;
• Notifies law enforcement or calls 911 prior to or immediately after entering the vehicle;
• Uses no more force than is necessary; and
• Remains with the person or animal until law enforcement or other first responder arrives.

For more information from the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF), click here.

Drive Sober – Impaired Driving Prevention

Under Florida law, a DUI results from an impairment of normal faculties or unlawful blood alcohol or breath alcohol level of .08 or above. Driving impaired not only puts everyone on the roadway in danger, it can have serious legal and monetary consequences. Penalties for DUIs can include expensive fines, license revocation and jail time. Convictions can remain on your record for 75 years.

• Plan ahead, designate a driver or call a ride service – it is much cheaper than a DUI arrest.
• If you see an impaired driver on the road, don’t hesitate to contact local law enforcement or dial *FHP (*347). This call could save a life.

Campaign Resources

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Download the Social Media Posts PDF and click on the thumbnails below to make posting on social media quick and easy! Make sure to use hashtag #TravelSafeFL too.

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