9th IAA PLANETARY DEFENSE CONFERENCE 2025

A nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) vehicle concept and mission were developed for the 2025 Planetary Defense Conference (PDC) asteroid target. The work builds upon recent work by Brophy, et. al. using solar electric propulsion for planetary defense. The results with NEP are different given that the NEP vehicle’s power is not affected by distance from the sun. A relatively near-term NEP vehicle concept was developed the NASA Glenn Research Center Compass concurrent engineering team with the power system based on a currently planned 40 kW reactor system for the moon and internal studies to tighten the ion beam of the recently flown 7 kW NEXT ion propulsion system. The tightening of the ion beam allows for more momentum exchange ions to nudge the asteroid while also allowing the NEP vehicle to keep its distance from the asteroid. A recent 40 kW NEP vehicle designed for the moon will be modified to provide both the propulsion to get to the asteroid and then nudge it out of an Earth intercept.