Manfred Ehresmann with the sponsor of the award James D. Burke, first manager of the Ranger program

IRS wins the Move An Asteroid Competition 2019

October 30, 2019 / Matthias Langer

IRS employee Manfred Ehresmann wins planetary defense competition.

At the planetary defense competition Move an Asteroid Competition 2019, the work of Manfred Ehresmann has been selected as a winner. Within the scope of the competition all topics of planetary defense are permitted.

The submitted work considers the change of Albedo properties of asteroids with the utilization of laser energy. With that, the hard to predict orbit drift of an asteroid due to asymmetric absorption and emission of radiation can be minimized. For this purpose, commercially available laser technology can be utilized.

The award includes financial support to attend the Space Generation Congress 2019 and the 70th International Astronautical Congress in Washington D.C., USA.

The work is available here:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336058038_Asteroid_Control_through_Surface_Restructuring

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