Gravity tractor
Encyclopedia
A gravity tractor is a spacecraft
that deflects another object in space, typically a potentially hazardous asteroid
that might impact Earth, without physically contacting it, using only its gravitational field
to transmit the required impulse.
The tractor spacecraft could either hover near the object being deflected or orbit near it.
The concept has the advantage that essentially nothing need be known about the mechanical composition and structure of the asteroid in advance.
The one that has caused the greatest concern is how to transmit the impulse required (possibly quite large), to an asteroid of unknown mass, composition, and mechanical strength, without shattering it into fragments, some of which might be themselves dangerous to Earth if left in a collision orbit.
The GT solves this problem by gently accelerating the object as a whole over an extended period of time, using the spacecraft's own mass and associated gravitational field to effect the necessary deflecting force.
Because of the universality of gravitation, affecting as it does all mass alike, the asteroid would be accelerated almost uniformly as a whole, with only tidal force
s (which should be extremely small) causing any stresses to its internal structure.
A further advantage is that a transponder on the spacecraft, by continuously monitoring the position and velocity of the tractor/asteroid system, could enable the post-deflection trajectory of the asteroid to be accurately known, ensuring its final placement into a safe orbit.
where F is the average force, applied over a time t .
By the law of conservation of momentum, which is equivalent to Newton's Third Law of action and reaction
, the spacecraft propulsion must provide the same total impulse.
Also, in order that the spacecraft not simply be driven off to infinity by this propulsive force, it must be balanced, on the average, by the gravitational attraction of the asteroid for the spacecraft. Since the gravitational attraction is likely to be fairly small for a spacecraft of reasonable mass, the time t is likely to be rather long.
This in turn entails that the spacecraft, necessarily massive already, must match velocity with the asteroid, further increasing the propulsive capability required, and then orbit or hover above it for an extended period.
The high propulsion capability needed, together with the rather low thrust required, suggests an ion drive as the appropriate thruster.
Stationkeeping or maintaining a stable orbit close to the asteroid would be complicated if the object has a complex shape or a complex rotational behavior, as was the case for the NEAR
mission that visited 433 Eros
.
If the asteroid were a binary system, which is now known to be fairly common, the situation would be yet more complex, though surely still manageable. Beacons attached to the asteroid communicating with the tractor spacecraft could track relative locations leading to stationkeeping adjustments of the spacecraft to maximize the gravitational force while minimizing spacecraft fuel requirements.
In any case, the tractor method appears most useful for objects of low to moderate mass, needing modest corrective impulse, and for which an extended period of time is available to effect the correction.
Another limitation for a hovering or stationkeeping gravity tractor is the exhaust configuration. With the most efficient hovering design (that is, pointing the exhaust directly at the target object for maximum force per unit of fuel), the expelled reaction mass hits the target head-on, imparting a force in the exact opposite direction to the gravitational pull of the tractor. It would therefore be necessary to use the orbiting-tractor scheme described below, or else design the hovering tractor so that its exhaust is directed at a slight angle away from the object, while still pointing “down” enough to keep a steady hover. This requires greater thrust and correspondingly increased fuel consumption for each m/s change in the target’s velocity.
of size around 100 m, and mass of one million metric tons, threatened to impact Earth. Suppose also that
With these parameters, the required impulse would be: V × M = 0.01 [m/s]×109 [kg] = 107 [N-s], so that the average tractor force on the asteroid for 10 years, = 3.156×108 s, would need to be about 0.032 newtons.
An ion-electric spacecraft with a specific impulse of 10,000 N-s per kg, corresponding to an ion beam velocity of 10 km/s (about twenty that obtained with the best chemical rockets), would require 1,000 kg of reaction mass (Xe
is currently favored) to provide the impulse.
The kinetic power of the ion beam would then be approximately 317 W; the input electric power to the power converter and ion drive would of course be substantially higher.
The spacecraft would need to have enough mass and remain sufficiently close to the asteroid that the component of the average gravitational force on the asteroid in the desired direction would equal or exceed the required 0.032 N.
Assuming the spacecraft is hovering the asteroid at a distance of 200 m to its centre of mass, that would
require it to have a mass of about 20 metric tonnes, because due to the gravitational force we
have
Considering possible hovering positions or orbits of the tractor around the asteroid, note that if two objects are gravitationally bound in a mutual orbit, then if one receives an arbitrary impulse which is less than that needed to free it from orbit around the other, because of the gravitational forces between them, the impulse will alter the momentum of both, together regarded as a composite system.
That is, so long as the tractor remains in a bound orbit, any propulsive force applied to it will be effectively transferred to the asteroid it orbits.
This permits a wide variety of orbits or hovering strategies for the tractor.
One obvious possibility is for the spacecraft to orbit the NEO with the normal to the orbit in the direction of the desired force.
The ion beam would then be directed in the opposite direction, also perpendicular to the orbit plane. This would result in the plane of the orbit being shifted somewhat away from the center of the asteroid, "towing" it, while the orbital velocity, normal to the thrust, remains constant. The orbital period would be a few hours, essentially independent of size, but weakly dependent on the density of the target body.
Spacecraft
A spacecraft or spaceship is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, planetary exploration and transportation of humans and cargo....
that deflects another object in space, typically a potentially hazardous asteroid
Potentially Hazardous Object
A potentially hazardous object is an asteroid or comet with an orbit such that it has the potential to make close approaches to the Earth and a size large enough to cause significant regional damage in the event of impact....
that might impact Earth, without physically contacting it, using only its gravitational field
Gravitational field
The gravitational field is a model used in physics to explain the existence of gravity. In its original concept, gravity was a force between point masses...
to transmit the required impulse.
The tractor spacecraft could either hover near the object being deflected or orbit near it.
The concept has the advantage that essentially nothing need be known about the mechanical composition and structure of the asteroid in advance.
Advantages
A number of considerations arise concerning means for avoiding a devastating collision with an asteroidal object, should one be discovered on a trajectory that were determined to lead to Earth impact at some future date.The one that has caused the greatest concern is how to transmit the impulse required (possibly quite large), to an asteroid of unknown mass, composition, and mechanical strength, without shattering it into fragments, some of which might be themselves dangerous to Earth if left in a collision orbit.
The GT solves this problem by gently accelerating the object as a whole over an extended period of time, using the spacecraft's own mass and associated gravitational field to effect the necessary deflecting force.
Because of the universality of gravitation, affecting as it does all mass alike, the asteroid would be accelerated almost uniformly as a whole, with only tidal force
Tidal force
The tidal force is a secondary effect of the force of gravity and is responsible for the tides. It arises because the gravitational force per unit mass exerted on one body by a second body is not constant across its diameter, the side nearest to the second being more attracted by it than the side...
s (which should be extremely small) causing any stresses to its internal structure.
A further advantage is that a transponder on the spacecraft, by continuously monitoring the position and velocity of the tractor/asteroid system, could enable the post-deflection trajectory of the asteroid to be accurately known, ensuring its final placement into a safe orbit.
Limitations
The most important limitations of the tractor concept are that if the required impulse is large, it requires a correspondingly massive spacecraft, a large propulsion capability on the part of the tractor spacecraft, and a long period to effect the change. If the mass of the asteroidal body is M and the change in its velocity required is V , then the change in its momentum is p :
where F is the average force, applied over a time t .
By the law of conservation of momentum, which is equivalent to Newton's Third Law of action and reaction
Reaction (physics)
The third of Newton's laws of motion of classical mechanics states that forces always occur in pairs. Every action is accompanied by a reaction of equal magnitude but opposite direction. This principle is commonly known in the Latin language as actio et reactio. The attribution of which of the two...
, the spacecraft propulsion must provide the same total impulse.
Also, in order that the spacecraft not simply be driven off to infinity by this propulsive force, it must be balanced, on the average, by the gravitational attraction of the asteroid for the spacecraft. Since the gravitational attraction is likely to be fairly small for a spacecraft of reasonable mass, the time t is likely to be rather long.
This in turn entails that the spacecraft, necessarily massive already, must match velocity with the asteroid, further increasing the propulsive capability required, and then orbit or hover above it for an extended period.
The high propulsion capability needed, together with the rather low thrust required, suggests an ion drive as the appropriate thruster.
Stationkeeping or maintaining a stable orbit close to the asteroid would be complicated if the object has a complex shape or a complex rotational behavior, as was the case for the NEAR
Near
- Science, mathematics, technology, biology, and medicine :* Nicking Enzyme Amplification Reaction, a method for in vitro DNA amplification* Near-Earth object, an object in the Solar System whose orbit brings it close to the Earth** Near-Earth asteroid...
mission that visited 433 Eros
433 Eros
433 Eros is a near-Earth asteroid discovered in 1898, and the first asteroid to be orbited by a probe . It is an S-type asteroid approximately 34.4×11.2×11.2 km in size, the second-largest NEA after 1036 Ganymed, and belongs to the Amor group.Eros is a Mars-crosser asteroid, the first known...
.
If the asteroid were a binary system, which is now known to be fairly common, the situation would be yet more complex, though surely still manageable. Beacons attached to the asteroid communicating with the tractor spacecraft could track relative locations leading to stationkeeping adjustments of the spacecraft to maximize the gravitational force while minimizing spacecraft fuel requirements.
In any case, the tractor method appears most useful for objects of low to moderate mass, needing modest corrective impulse, and for which an extended period of time is available to effect the correction.
Another limitation for a hovering or stationkeeping gravity tractor is the exhaust configuration. With the most efficient hovering design (that is, pointing the exhaust directly at the target object for maximum force per unit of fuel), the expelled reaction mass hits the target head-on, imparting a force in the exact opposite direction to the gravitational pull of the tractor. It would therefore be necessary to use the orbiting-tractor scheme described below, or else design the hovering tractor so that its exhaust is directed at a slight angle away from the object, while still pointing “down” enough to keep a steady hover. This requires greater thrust and correspondingly increased fuel consumption for each m/s change in the target’s velocity.
Example
To get a feel for the magnitude of these issues, let us suppose that a NEONear-Earth object
A near-Earth object is a Solar System object whose orbit brings it into close proximity with the Earth. All NEOs have a perihelion distance less than 1.3 AU. They include a few thousand near-Earth asteroids , near-Earth comets, a number of solar-orbiting spacecraft, and meteoroids large enough to...
of size around 100 m, and mass of one million metric tons, threatened to impact Earth. Suppose also that
- a velocity correction of 1 cm/s would be adequate to place it in a safe and stable orbit, missing Earth
- that the correction needed to be applied within a period of 10 years.
With these parameters, the required impulse would be: V × M = 0.01 [m/s]×109 [kg] = 107 [N-s], so that the average tractor force on the asteroid for 10 years, = 3.156×108 s, would need to be about 0.032 newtons.
An ion-electric spacecraft with a specific impulse of 10,000 N-s per kg, corresponding to an ion beam velocity of 10 km/s (about twenty that obtained with the best chemical rockets), would require 1,000 kg of reaction mass (Xe
Xe
Xe or XE may refer to:* Xenon, a chemical element* XE.com, a currency and foreign exchange rate website* Chi Epsilon , a national civil engineering honor society* ExpressJet Airlines IATA code...
is currently favored) to provide the impulse.
The kinetic power of the ion beam would then be approximately 317 W; the input electric power to the power converter and ion drive would of course be substantially higher.
The spacecraft would need to have enough mass and remain sufficiently close to the asteroid that the component of the average gravitational force on the asteroid in the desired direction would equal or exceed the required 0.032 N.
Assuming the spacecraft is hovering the asteroid at a distance of 200 m to its centre of mass, that would
require it to have a mass of about 20 metric tonnes, because due to the gravitational force we
have
Considering possible hovering positions or orbits of the tractor around the asteroid, note that if two objects are gravitationally bound in a mutual orbit, then if one receives an arbitrary impulse which is less than that needed to free it from orbit around the other, because of the gravitational forces between them, the impulse will alter the momentum of both, together regarded as a composite system.
That is, so long as the tractor remains in a bound orbit, any propulsive force applied to it will be effectively transferred to the asteroid it orbits.
This permits a wide variety of orbits or hovering strategies for the tractor.
One obvious possibility is for the spacecraft to orbit the NEO with the normal to the orbit in the direction of the desired force.
The ion beam would then be directed in the opposite direction, also perpendicular to the orbit plane. This would result in the plane of the orbit being shifted somewhat away from the center of the asteroid, "towing" it, while the orbital velocity, normal to the thrust, remains constant. The orbital period would be a few hours, essentially independent of size, but weakly dependent on the density of the target body.