B612 History

The B612 Foundation had its roots in one-day workshop on deflecting asteroids, organized by Piet Hut and Ed Lu at NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, on October 20, 2001. This meeting was rather informal, primarily a round-table discussion among 20 experts, in areas related to asteroids and to new propulsion and power technologies, who wanted to actually do something about deflecting near Earth asteroids (NEAs).

There was consensus among the group that low-thrust methods would likely be the optimal choice for trying to change the orbit of an asteroid on a collision course with the Earth. The use of nuclear explosions was seen as too risky and unpredictable to be deemed safe. A variety of methods was discussed, one of the most promising, to land a plasma engine, powered by a nuclear reactor, on an asteroid. By using the engine as a tugboat to push the asteroid, its orbit could be changed enough to avoid an impact with the Earth.

The discussion focused on a number of technical details, such as how to efficiently push a spinning asteroid, the question of how to anchor the engine in the low-gravity environment of the asteroid, problems related to the possible presence of dust, and so on. But the main outcome of the meeting was the fact that among the 20 experts, a plasma powered tugboat looked like the best bet for an early demonstration mission. Other technologies would have to be evaluated, but the nuclear electric/plasma propulsion combination with a direct docking would be the most generally useful concept for all asteroid types. The development of this technology would provide the capability to accomplish many other deep space missions as well.

With no showstoppers present, the meeting ended with an upbeat feeling that we are technologically ready to plan and execute such a demonstration mission. A change of just 1 or 2 cm/sec in the orbital velocity of an asteroid would be easy to measure from the Earth using radar, and would be enough to avoid a collision with the Earth if it were carried out a number of years in advance.

A good trial project would be to select a representative NEA (one not headed toward Earth) and change its orbit slightly as a demonstration of the capability. With the consensus of the group that an organization to carry out this program would be needed, Clark Chapman, Piet Hut, Ed Lu, and Rusty Schweickart took up the challenge. After further detailed discussions, they established the B612 Foundation on October 7, 2002.

List of participants of the October 2001 workshop:

Legend
* Currently sits on B612 Board of Directors