Quantifying hazards: asteroid disruption in lunar distant retrograde\n orbits

Abstract

The Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) proposes to retrieve a near-Earth\nasteroid and position it in a lunar distant retrograde orbit (DRO) for later\nstudy, crewed exploration, and ultimately resource exploitation. During the\nCaltech Space Challenge, a recent workshop to design a crewed mission to a\ncaptured asteroid in a DRO, it became apparent that the asteroid's low escape\nvelocity (<1 cm s$^{-1}$) would permit the escape of asteroid particles during\nany meaningful interaction with astronauts or robotic probes. This Note finds\nthat up to 5% of escaped asteroid fragments will cross Earth-geosynchronous\norbits and estimates the risk to satellites from particle escapes or complete\ndisruption of a loosely bound rubble pile.\n