Related papers: Ion Beam Shepherd for Asteroid Deflection
Trapping and manipulation of particles using laser beams has become an important tool in diverse fields of research. In recent years, particular interest is given to the problem of conveying optically trapped particles over extended…
Context: Observation of star occultations is a powerful tool to determine shapes and sizes of asteroids. This is key information necessary for studying the evolution of the asteroid belt and to calibrate indirect methods of size…
In this paper we propose a computational framework for the investigation of the correlated motion between positive and negative ions exposed to the attraction of a bubble surface that mimics the (oscillating) cell membrane. The correlated…
The earth's orbit is becoming increasingly crowded with debris that poses significant safety risks to the operation of existing and new spacecraft and satellites. The active tether-net system, which consists of a flexible net with…
A charged tether or wire experiences Coulomb drag when inserted into flowing plasma. In the solar wind the Coulomb drag can be utilised as efficient propellantless interplanetary propulsion as the electric solar wind sail (electric sail,…
A new design for heavy-ion beam driven isentropic compression experiments is suggested and analysed. The proposed setup utilises long stopping ranges and the variable focal spot geometry of the high-energy uranium beams delivered at the GSI…
(Abridged) Out-of-the-ecliptic trajectories that are beneficial to space observatories such as the Terrestrial Planet Finder and other potential mid-IR missions are introduced. These novel trajectories result in significantly reduced…
The field of asteroid thermophysical modeling has experienced an extraordinary growth in the last ten years, as new thermal infrared data became available for hundreds of thousands of asteroids. The infrared emission of asteroids depends on…
Small asteroids and large meteoroids frequently impact the Earth, though their physical and material properties remain poorly understood. When observed as fireballs in Earth's atmosphere, these properties can be inferred from their ablation…
A numerical optimization study of minimum-fuel Earth-based orbital transfers from low-Earth orbit (LEO) to either medium-Earth orbit (MEO), high-Earth orbit (HEO), or geostationary orbit (GEO), is performed. Various values of maximum…
High power Earth and orbital-based directed energy (DE) systems pose a potential hazard to Earth orbiting spacecraft. The use of very high power, large aperture DE systems to propel spacecraft is being pursued as the only known, feasible…
To date, the most widespread scenario is that the Earth originated without water and was brought to the planet mainly due to impacts by wet asteroids coming from further out in space. However, many uncertainties remain regarding the exact…
A detailed experimental and simulation study of the extraction of a 24 keV He-ion beam from an ECR ion source and the subsequent beam transport through an analyzing magnet is presented. We find that such a slow ion beam is very sensitive to…
We consider how an impact generated seismic pulse affects the surface of an asteroid distant from the impact site. With laboratory experiments on dry polydisperse gravel mixtures, we track the trajectories of particles ejected from the…
The ion-sputtering (IS) process is active in many planetary environments in the Solar System where plasma precipitates directly on the surface (for instance, Mercury, Moon, Europa). In particular, solar-wind sputtering is one of the most…
We report a new approach for progressive and well-controlled downsizing of nanostructures below the 10 nm scale. Low energetic ion beam (Ar+) is used for gentle surface erosion, progressively shrinking the dimensions with ~ 1 nm accuracy.…
A numerical study on ion acceleration in electrostatic shock waves is presented, with the aim of determining the best plasma configuration to achieve quasi-monoenergetic ion beams in laser-driven systems. It was recently shown that tailored…
Dynamic manipulation, such as robot tossing or throwing objects, has recently gained attention as a novel paradigm to speed up logistic operations. However, the focus has predominantly been on the object's landing location, irrespective of…
Understanding the mechanism that drives accretion has been the primary challenge in accretion disk theory. Turbulence provides a natural means of dissipation and the removal of angular momentum, but firmly establishing its presence in disks…
Efficient transport of cold atoms or ions is a subject of increasing concern in many experimental applications reaching from quantum information processing to frequency metrology. For the scalable quantum computer architectures based on the…