Siegfried Eggl
IMCCE, Observatoire de Paris

Abstract
Catastrophic impacts of Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) on our planet are one of the few natural disasters that are believed to be avoidable using current technologies. The NEOShield project as well as its successor NEOShield 2 are international efforts under European leadership intended to provide a state of the art assessment of NEA deflection capabilities. One of the most striking results in this endeavor is the discovery that uncertainties will dominate the outcome of any current deflection attempt. Conducting deflection demonstration missions as soon as possible is, thus, essential, as they offer the opportunity to test and improve our understanding of orbit deviation methods such as kinetic impacts and gravity tractors. In my presentation I will give a brief summary of proposed NEA deflection test missions and discuss how to render such efforts as cost effective and as safe as possible.

10 July 2015, 13:30

Centro de Astrofísica
Rua das Estrelas
4150-762 Porto