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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Tarda and Tagish Lake: Samples from the same outer Solar System asteroid and implications for D- and P-type asteroids

Here, we report a comprehensive study of the ungrouped type 2 carbonaceous chondrite, Tarda, which fell in Morocco in 2020. This meteorite exhibits substantial similarities to Tagish Lake, Wisconsin Range 91600, and Meteorite Hills 00432, which are generally considered to have originated from a D-type asteroid(s). We constrain the compositions and petrologies of the materials present in a potential sample of a D-type asteroid by reporting the petrography, bulk chemical compositions, bulk H, C, N, Cr, and Ti isotopic compositions, reflectance spectra, and in situ chemical compositions of metals, sulfides, carbonates, and FeO-poor and FeO-rich chondrule silicates of Tarda. We also present new data for Tagish Lake. We then compare Tarda with the other Tagish Lake-like meteorites. Tarda and Tagish Lake appear to be from the same parent body, as demonstrated by their similar petrologies (modal abundances, chondrule sizes), mineral compositions, bulk chemical and isotopic compositions, and reflectance spectra. While the two other Tagish Lake-like meteorites, Wisconsin Range 91600 and Meteorite Hills 00432, show some affinities to Tagish Lake and Tarda, they also share similar characteristics to the Mighei-like carbonaceous (CM) chondrites, warranting further study. Similarities in reflectance spectra suggest that P-type asteroids 65 Cybele and 76 Freia are potential parent bodies of Tarda and the Tagish Lake-like meteorites, or at least have similar surface materials. Since upcoming spacecraft missions will spectrally survey D-type, P-type, and C-type Trojan asteroids (NASA's Lucy) and spectrally study and return samples from Mars' moon Phobos (JAXA's Martian Moons eXploration mission), which is spectrally similar to D-type asteroids, these meteorites are of substantial scientific interest. Furthermore, since Tarda closely spectrally matches P-type asteroids (but compositionally matches the D-type asteroid like Tagish Lake meteorite), P-type and D-type asteroids may represent fragments of the same or similar parent bodies.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Long-Term Science Goals with In Situ Observations at the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point L4

The Korean heliospheric community, led by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI), is currently assessing the viability of deploying a spacecraft at the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point L4 in collaboration with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The aim of this mission is to utilize a combination of remote sensing and in situ instruments for comprehensive observations, complementing the capabilities of the L1 and L5 observatories. The paper outlines long-term scientific objectives, underscoring the significance of multi-point in-situ observations to better understand critical heliospheric phenomena. These include coronal mass ejections, magnetic flux ropes, heliospheric current sheets, kinetic waves and instabilities, suprathermal electrons and solar energetic particle events, as well as remote detection of solar radiation phenomena. Furthermore, the mission’s significance in advancing space weather prediction and space radiation exposure assessment models through the integration of L4 observations is discussed. This article is concluded with an emphasis on the potential of L4 observations to propel advancements in heliospheric science.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Nanoscale oxidation behavior of carbon fibers revealed with in situ gas cell STEM

Thermal protection systems are used to protect spacecraft payloads during the extreme conditions of atmospheric entry. The backbone of the composite material often used for NASA mission is carbon fiber, which oxidizes at these conditions. This study presents the direct observation of carbon oxidation using in situ Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM). A thin section of a commercially-available carbon fiber material containing multiple structures was examined by STEM in a closed-environmental cell in which temperature was raised from 25 to 1050 °C under a steady flow of air. Results show that the random polycrystalline carbon structure oxidized more uniformly and rapidly than the single crystallite region, which oxidized more anisotropically. These findings are the first to directly observe the structural dependence of carbon oxidation rates at these length-scales while also giving important insight into the onset of pitting at various active surface sites, important pieces in fundamentally understanding of carbon oxidation.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Metagenomic Methods for Addressing NASA's Planetary Protection Policy Requirements on Future Missions: A Workshop Report

Molecular biology methods and technologies have advanced substantially over the past decade. These new molecular methods should be incorporated among the standard tools of planetary protection (PP) and could be validated for incorporation by 2026. To address the feasibility of applying modern molecular techniques to such an application, NASA conducted a technology workshop with private industry partners, academics, and government agency stakeholders, along with NASA staff and contractors. The technical discussions and presentations of the Multi-Mission Metagenomics Technology Development Workshop focused on modernizing and supplementing the current PP assays. The goals of the workshop were to assess the state of metagenomics and other advanced molecular techniques in the context of providing a validated framework to supplement the bacterial endospore-based NASA Standard Assay and to identify knowledge and technology gaps. In particular, workshop participants were tasked with discussing metagenomics as a stand-alone technology to provide rapid and comprehensive analysis of total nucleic acids and viable microorganisms on spacecraft surfaces, thereby allowing for the development of tailored and cost-effective microbial reduction plans for each hardware item on a spacecraft. Workshop participants recommended metagenomics approaches as the only data source that can adequately feed into quantitative microbial risk assessment models for evaluating the risk of forward (exploring extraterrestrial planet) and back (Earth harmful biological) contamination. Participants were unanimous that a metagenomics workflow, in tandem with rapid targeted quantitative (digital) PCR, represents a revolutionary advance over existing methods for the assessment of microbial bioburden on spacecraft surfaces. The workshop highlighted low biomass sampling, reagent contamination, and inconsistent bioinformatics data analysis as key areas for technology development. Finally, it was concluded that implementing metagenomics as an additional workflow for addressing concerns of NASA's robotic mission will represent a dramatic improvement in technology advancement for PP and will benefit future missions where mission success is affected by backward and forward contamination.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Multipoint Turbulence Analysis with HelioSwarm

Exploration of plasma dynamics in space, including turbulence, is entering a new era of multisatellite constellation measurements that will determine fundamental properties with unprecedented precision. Familiar but imprecise approximations will need to be abandoned and replaced with more-advanced approaches. We present a preparatory study of the evaluation of second- and third-order statistics, using simultaneous measurements at many points. Here, for specificity, the orbital configuration of the NASA Swarm mission is employed in conjunction with 3D magnetohydrodynamics numerical simulations of turbulence. The HelioSwarm nine-spacecraft constellation flies virtually through the turbulence to compare results with the exact numerical statistics. We demonstrate novel increment-based techniques for the computation of (1) the multidimensional spectra and (2) the turbulent energy flux. This latter increment-space estimate of the cascade rate, based on the third-order Yaglom–Politano–Pouquet theory, uses numerous increment-space tetrahedra. Our investigation reveals that HelioSwarm will provide crucial information on the nature of astrophysical turbulence.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

NASA Dragonfly Mission MMRTG

The Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS) group at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is supporting NASA’s New Frontier class mission, Dragonfly, to explore the Saturn moon Titan. Titan has been observed by both Voyager spacecrafts in 1979 and 1980 and during over 100 close flyby encounters by the Cassini orbiter and subsequent landing of the Huygens probe which landed on Titan in 2005. The probe lasted about 2.5 hours without an RPS due to the thick atmosphere and cold climate but gave scientists valuable insight into the geology of Titan. The surface is composed of vast sand dunes and liquid methane with an atmosphere composed primarily of nitrogen that is 60% more dense as the Earth’s with 1/7th of Earth’s gravity. These conditions allow for exploration using a dual-quadcopter. Due to the extreme temperatures (-290°F or -180°C), changes to the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) are required. This generator, designated flight unit 4 or MMRTG-F4, is being built by a team lead by INL and includes the prime contractor Aerojet Rocketdyne and their supplier Teledyne Energy System. This poster outlines the mission, the unique challenges and updates the build progress.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2023

Oblique propagation and temperature effects on the resonant right-hand ion beam instability

The resonant right-hand instability (RHI) is often the dominant mode driven by reflected ions upstream of Earth’s quasi-parallel bow shock. In the tradition of Peter Gary, this paper further explores the right-hand instability using numerical solutions of the plasma dispersion relation and non-linear kinetic simulations, with parameters inspired by observations from NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission. Agreement is found between the ion distributions in the particle-in-cell simulations and Magnetospheric Multiscale spacecraft data, which show the gyrophase bunching characteristic of the instability. The non-linear structures created by right-hand instability tend to be stronger when the plasma beta is lower. These structures have sizes of around 100 to 200 ion inertial lengths perpendicular to the magnetic field, presenting planet-sized disturbances to the magnetosphere. 2d and 3D hybrid particle-in-cell simulations show that modes with a range of propagation angles oblique to the magnetic field are excited, providing a ground to understand previous statistical studies of observed foreshock waves.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

The POEMMA (Probe of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics) observatory

The Probe Of Extreme Multi-Messenger Astrophysics (POEMMA) is designed to accurately observe ultra-high-energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) and cosmic neutrinos from space with sensitivity over the full celestial sky. POEMMA will observe the air fluorescence produced by extensive air showers (EASs) from UHECRs and potentially UHE neutrinos above 20 EeV. Additionally, POEMMA has the ability to observe the Cherenkov signal from upward-moving EASs induced by Earth-interacting tau neutrinos above 20 PeV. The POEMMA spacecraft are designed to quickly re-orientate to follow up transient neutrino sources and obtain currently unparalleled neutrino flux sensitivity. Developed as a NASA Astrophysics Probe-class mission, POEMMA consists of two identical satellites flying in loose formation in 525 km altitude orbits. Each POEMMA instrument incorporates a wide field-of-view (45°) Schmidt telescope with an optical collecting area of over 6 m 2 . The hybrid focal surface of each telescope includes a fast (1 μs) near-ultraviolet camera for EAS fluorescence observations and an ultrafast (10 ns) optical camera for Cherenkov EAS observations. In a 5-year mission, POEMMA will provide measurements that open new multi-messenger windows onto the most energetic events in the universe, enabling the study of new astrophysics and particle physics at these extreme energies.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗
DOE OSTI2024

Space Nuclear Power Autonomous Control Algorithm and Control Element Test Bed

Nuclear thermal rockets are currently NASA’s preferred option for use in a manned mission to Mars in the 2040s. The communication delay between an Earth ground station and a spacecraft heading toward Mars can be up to 20 min. Therefore, controlling the nuclear rocket engine would require either a full-time reactor operator on the mission or an autonomous control system for the reactor. The latter idea of making space nuclear reactors fully autonomous has drawn more interest from stakeholders, but such an autonomous control system must be rigorously tested and validated before it is certified for human use. The cost of a full ground test for a space nuclear reactor is tremendous, so a nonnuclear mock reactor test bed was created to test and validate control elements and control algorithms for space nuclear reactors. The test bed consists of control element hardware that inputs physical measurement data into a reactor emulator to produce the reactor’s performance under steady-state, transient, and fault conditions. The control element hardware consists of six full-sized control drums equipped with servo drives and motors and is instrumented with optical encoders, resolvers, and torque sensors for drum movement characterization. In addition to the drums, a two-phase flow loop was designed and built to mimic the valves and turbomachinery associated with the propellant flow through a nuclear thermal rocket engine; components such as pressure sensors, flow meters, thermocouples, and tachometers are instrumented throughout the loop to characterize the fluid flow, valve, and turbomachinery behavior of the system. The data from the physical hardware (e.g., drum position, propellant flow rates) are input to a nuclear reactor simulator to determine the actual nuclear reactor parameters, and the data are sent back to a control algorithm to complete the control loop. The ability to conduct numerous tests of the control systems and autonomous algorithms can help validate the instrumentation and control aspects for a space nuclear reactor for every possible fault situation.

Wilson, Brandon↗
DOE OSTI2022

Predicting Asteroid Material Properties from a DART-like Kinetic Impact

Abstract NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission is the first full-scale test of the kinetic impactor method for asteroid deflection, in which a spacecraft intentionally impacts an asteroid to change its trajectory. DART represents an important first step for planetary defense technology demonstration, providing a realistic assessment of the effectiveness of the kinetic impact approach on a near-Earth asteroid. The momentum imparted to the asteroid is transferred from the impacting spacecraft and enhanced by the momentum of material ejected from the impact site. However, the magnitude of the ejecta contribution is dependent on the material properties of the target. These properties, such as strength and shear modulus, are unknown for the DART target asteroid, Dimorphos, as well as most asteroids since such properties are difficult to characterize remotely. This study examines how hydrocode simulations can be used to estimate material properties from information available post-impact, specifically the asteroid size and shape, the velocity and properties of the impacting spacecraft, and the final velocity change imparted to the asteroid. Across >300 three-dimensional simulations varying seven material parameters describing the asteroid, we found many combinations of properties could reproduce a particular asteroid velocity. Additional observations, such as asteroid mass or crater size, are required to further constrain properties like asteroid strength or outcomes like the momentum enhancement provided by impact ejecta. Our results demonstrate the vital importance of having as much knowledge as possible prior to an impact mission, with key material parameters being the asteroid’s mass, porosity, strength, and elastic properties.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Magnetics Testing on Radioisotope Power Systems at the Idaho National Laboratory

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) uses Radioisotope Power Systems (RPS) to power deep-space and planetary explorations such as Cassini-Huygens, Galileo, New Horizons, Mars Science Laboratory—Curiosity, and most recently Mars 2020--Perseverance. The Space Nuclear Power and Isotope Technologies (SNPIT) division, at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), fuels, tests, and delivers the RPS to ensure it can provide the electrical power needed to complete mission objectives. Some space crafts have instrumentation specifically designed to study the subject’s magnetic field or may have instruments that can be affected by magnetic fields produced by the RPS. Analyzing and measuring the RPS’s magnetic fields ensures the required thresholds are not exceeded and accurate data can be collected for the mission. Magnetics testing provides numerical values of the RPS’s magnetic field. During Magnetics testing at INL, the RPS is placed on a resistive load to simulate actual spacecraft load characteristics (voltage and current). During this simulation, magnetometers are used to measure the magnetic field of the RPS. Raw data is collected and then analyzed to ensure the field created by the RPS is below NASA thresholds or that the magnitude of the field is accounted for to ensure mission success.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Sampling Size Optimization for Bioburden Density Estimation in Planetary Protection

Planetary protection (PP) is a discipline that focuses on minimizing the biological contamination of spacecraft to ensure compliance with international policy. Precise estimation of bioburden - the total number of microbes in or on spacecraft hardware – and the bioburden density are of utmost importance for PP. Such estimation is the way concordance with requirements is demonstrated, and it is critical for quantifying the potential risk of inadvertently contaminating other planetary bodies. Although a suite of molecular techniques have been used to thoroughly characterize and profile the microbiome of various cleanroom environments and spacecraft, the gold standard remains the physical enumeration of microbes via culturing of samples directly taken from spacecraft and associated surfaces. However, due to technical, budgetary, and programmatic constraints, only a manageable portion (around 10%) of the entire spacecraft surface is directly sampled with cotton swabs or wipes. To generate the bioburden current best estimate (CBE) for components not directly verifiable, the accepted approach is to apply a NASA-defined bioburden estimate based on the components’ manufacturing or assembly environment. This approach utilizes a prespecified bioburden density estimation that applies a maximum value across the total surface area of the specified component. For hardware components that underwent similar assembly processes, an implied bioburden is adopted for all components, based on a direct verification of a representative component within the same lot. Once all components have a CBE, the bioburden estimates are generated. In previous publication [ 1], we have shown that statistical risks quantifying the accuracy of the estimates for sampled, prespecified, and implied components can be derived and ranked. For mean squared error (MSE) function, the risks are available analytically and hence a cost function can be obtained to optimize the risks with respect to the sampling area and sampling cost. Since the sampling area and sampling cost are two complimentary variables, their sum will have a well-defined minimum. This paper presents the multivariate optimization of the integrated risk of an empirical Bayes estimator to determine the optimal sampling schedule for a given number of components. It is assumed that given a number of components, N, the bioburden density for each component can either be sampled, implied, or prespecified. The multivariate optimization searches through different options to sample, imply or prespecify the bioburden density for a component, and account for the component’s surface area and cost of sampling. The idea of the optimization is based on the observation that the statistical risk of using an estimator is a monotonically decreasing function of the sampled area. The larger the sampled area, the lower the risk of using the estimator as the estimator becomes more and more accurate as the sampling area increases. On the other hand, the cost of sampling is monotonically increasing as the sampled surface grows. This makes the risk and total cost of sampling complimentary variables which can be counterbalanced to achieve an optimal overall value with respect to the sampled surface. In this paper, the integrated risk has been used to quantify the accuracy of the estimator. This risk has been selected because it depends on neither the true value of the parameter nor on the collected data. The cost of each sample was also available to obtain the total cost of sampling of N components. The paper will present the results based on computer-simulated data as well as the data collected during the InSight mission. The computer-simulated data have N components with randomly generated total areas and each component assigned to one of the three categories according to the method of estimating of bioburden density: sampled, implied, or prespecified. The cost of sampling is also available. The cost of sampling is estimated based on a cost model provided by the planetary protection group at JPL. For this paper, the overall cost was assumed to be a linear function of exposure. The optimization process finds the allocation of the components to the three categories that minimizes the tradeoff between integrated risk and total cost. For the InSight data, a set of components is selected representing all three categories, and optimization is performed to determine if the performed allocation was optimal or if a better allocation could have been obtained. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first attempt not only perform an accurate estimation of bioburden density but also do it in an optimal way.

97 - MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Systematic uncertainties in the measurement of the neutron lifetime using the Lunar Prospector neutron spectrometer

The lifetime of free neutrons measured in the laboratory has a longstanding disparity of ≈9 s. A space-based technique has recently been proposed to independently measure the neutron lifetime using interactions between the galactic cosmic rays and a low atmosphere planetary body. This technique has not produced competitive results yet due to constraints of nonoptimized data that contain large systematic errors. We use data from the neutron spectrometer on-board NASA's Lunar Prospector, and study two large systematics in the measurement of neutron lifetime: the lunar subsurface temperature and the lunar surface composition. We use the HeCd and HeSn neutron spectrometer data when the spacecraft was in a highly elliptical orbit during the orbit insertion period. We report the neutron lifetime using four different models that each have different choices of surface temperature and composition. The 5° [Prettyman et al ., J. Geophys. Res.: Planets 111, 2005JE002656 (2006)] and 2° [Wilson et al., Phys. Rev. C 104, 045501 (2021)] rebinned maps result in 777.6±11.7 s and 739.6±10.8 s, respectively. For the 20° map (Prettyman et al., 2006), constant equatorial and a latitude-dependent temperature model result in 738.6±10.8 s and 767.3±11.2 s, respectively. Increasing the complexities of the models accounting for the systematic effects increase the measured lifetime. However, the reported measurements are not competitive with the laboratory results due to large unaccounted systematics resulting from nonoptimized measurements and modeling assumptions. This work serves as a study of systematic uncertainties for future neutron lifetime measurements using the space-based technique. We estimate the effect on the lifetime from the choice of temperature model to be to be 28.7 ±15.5 s, and choice of compositional map (for 20° and 5° maps) to be 10.3 ±12.2 s.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Elliptical ejecta of asteroid Dimorphos is due to its surface curvature

Kinetic deflection is a planetary defense technique delivering spacecraft momentum to a small body to deviate its course from Earth. The deflection efficiency depends on the impactor and target. Among them, the contribution of global curvature was poorly understood. The ejecta plume created by NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test impact on its target asteroid, Dimorphos, exhibited an elliptical shape almost aligned along its north-south direction. Here, we identify that this elliptical ejecta plume resulted from the target’s curvature, reducing the momentum transfer to 44 ± 10% along the orbit track compared to an equivalent impact on a flat target. We also find lower kinetic deflection of impacts on smaller near-Earth objects due to higher curvature. A solution to mitigate low deflection efficiency is to apply multiple low-energy impactors rather than a single high-energy impactor. Rapid reconnaissance to acquire a target’s properties before deflection enables determining the proper locations and timing of impacts.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Achievement of the Planetary Defense Investigations of the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission

NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission was the first to demonstrate asteroid deflection, and the mission's Level 1 requirements guided its planetary defense investigations. Here, we summarize DART's achievement of those requirements. On 2022 September 26, the DART spacecraft impacted Dimorphos, the secondary member of the Didymos near-Earth asteroid binary system, demonstrating an autonomously navigated kinetic impact into an asteroid with limited prior knowledge for planetary defense. Months of subsequent Earth-based observations showed that the binary orbital period was changed by –33.24 minutes, with two independent analysis methods each reporting a 1 σ uncertainty of 1.4 s. Dynamical models determined that the momentum enhancement factor, β , resulting from DART's kinetic impact test is between 2.4 and 4.9, depending on the mass of Dimorphos, which remains the largest source of uncertainty. Over five dozen telescopes across the globe and in space, along with the Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging of Asteroids, have contributed to DART's investigations. These combined investigations have addressed topics related to the ejecta, dynamics, impact event, and properties of both asteroids in the binary system. A year following DART's successful impact into Dimorphos, the mission has achieved its planetary defense requirements, although work to further understand DART's kinetic impact test and the Didymos system will continue. In particular, ESA's Hera mission is planned to perform extensive measurements in 2027 during its rendezvous with the Didymos–Dimorphos system, building on DART to advance our knowledge and continue the ongoing international collaboration for planetary defense.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

The integrated miniaturized electrostatic analyzer: A space plasma environment sensor

The integrated Miniaturized Electrostatic Analyzer (iMESA) was a satellite-based ionospheric sensor that operated on NASA’s Space Test Program Satellite (STPSat-3) from December 2013 to July 2019. The instrument’s scientific objective was to (1) measure the plasma density in low Earth orbit, (2) measure the plasma temperature in low Earth orbit, and (3) quantify the spacecraft potential with respect to the ambient plasma potential in the ionosphere. iMESA sampled the ionosphere every 10 s by measuring the ion current density through the ESA as a result of the motion of the spacecraft through the plasma. Current density spectra were transmitted to the ground where they were post-processed into ion density spectra and then analyzed numerically to determine the ion density, ion temperature, and spacecraft potential. This article discusses the instrument design and simulation, the determination of a geometric factor, and data processing procedures and evaluates the final data product with regard to the mission success criteria. Here, the ion density and ion temperature captured by the iMESA instrument are on the same order and range as the values predicted in the literature. The spacecraft potential was also quantified. The conclusion after the evaluation of the instrument’s data product is that the scientific mission is successful on all three points.

47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION↗
DOE OSTI2026

NASA analysis of space mission options for the 2025 planetary defense conference hypothetical asteroid impact threat scenario

The 2025 Planetary Defense Conference (PDC) hypothetical asteroid impact threat exercise is being conducted in coordination with the United Nations-endorsed Space Mission Planning Advisory Group (SMPAG), exercising SMPAG's processes for assessing space mission options and communicating to decision makers. Here, in this paper, we describe the work performed by our NASA-led team and present the results we contributed to the SMPAG effort for the exercise. Our NASA-led team assessed mission options for asteroid reconnaissance (flyby and rendezvous), deflection, and robust disruption using several viable techniques: kinetic impactors, ion beam deflection, and nuclear explosive devices. Our simulations and analyses considered how much change-in-velocity an asteroid can tolerate before fragmentation onset, and we worked towards establishing requirements for robustly disrupting an asteroid. Heuristics informed by the simulation results are incorporated into optimization of deflection and disruption mission campaign options. Finally, we make some observations about useful generalizations from these results with potential applicability to any planetary defense scenario.

Asteroid deflection↗