Rational operation modes of space telescopes to provide early warning of collision of small asteroids with Earth

Abstract

The problem of asteroid and comet hazard defence is relevant and has an international value. It is necessary to ensure the detection of hazardous celestial bodies (HCBs) traveling to the Earth along collisional trajectories. To solve this problem, it is imperative to determine the areas of application of means of HCB detection. The use of space telescopes should be carried out to detect HCBs that cannot be detected by ground-based telescopes due to various limitations in the form of solar elongation angles or HCB orbit and serve to improve the time of warning of the fall of HCB to the Earth and provide refinement of its motion parameters. In order to determine the fact of detection and the times of HCB visibility of ground-based telescopes or space telescopes, simulation modeling of the HCB motion for various collision orbits and of the retargeting of telescopes fields of vision simulation modeling was used. The types of orbits of colliding with the Earth asteroids that require the use of space telescopes operating in the mode of survey-search observation of a limited area of the celestial sphere inside the Earth's orbit were determined. Types of orbits that require the use of STs operating in a less complicated mode of escorting asteroids whose approximate orbital parameters were previously determined by ground-based telescopes until the moment of their meeting with the Earth were defined. The directions of international cooperation and interaction in solving problems of operational warning about the fall of HCBs to the Earth are outlined.