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Grant support

The work was supported by the research project Dynamic simulation of complex space systems supported by the (former) Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through Contract AYA2010-18796 and by ESA Situational Awareness (SSA) Preparatory Programme through project SN-VII NEO impact effects and mitigation measures, Contract No. 4000106175/12/D/MRP.

Analysis of institutional authors

Bombardelli, ClaudioCorresponding AuthorUrrutxua, HodeiAuthorMerino, MarioAuthorPelaez, JesusAuthorAhedo, EduardoAuthor

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Article

The ion beam shepherd: A new concept for asteroid deflection

Publicated to:Acta Astronautica. 90 (1): 98-102 - 2013-01-01 90(1), DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2012.10.019

Authors: Bombardelli, Claudio; Urrutxua, Hodei; Merino, Mario; Pelaez, Jesus; Ahedo, Eduardo;

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Abstract

A novel slow push asteroid deflection strategy has been recently proposed in which an Earth threatening asteroid can be deflected by exploiting the momentum transmitted by a collimated beam of quasi-neutral plasma impinging against the asteroid surface. The beam can be generated with state-of-the art ion engines from a hovering spacecraft with no need for physical attachment or gravitational interaction with the celestial body. The spacecraft, placed at a distance of a few asteroid diameters, would need an ion thruster pointed at the asteroid surface as well as a second propulsion system to compensate for the ion engine reaction and keep the distance between the asteroid and the shepherd satellite constant throughout the deflection phase. A comparison in terms of required spacecraft mass per total imparted deflection impulse shows that the method outperforms the gravity tractor concept by more than one order of magnitude for asteroids up to about 200 m diameter. The two methods would yield comparable performance for asteroids larger than about 2 km. (C) 2013 IAA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Asteroid deflectionB-planeGravity tractorIon beam shepherdIon beamshepherdLow thrustTangential thrust

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Acta Astronautica due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency Scopus (SJR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2013, it was in position , thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Aerospace Engineering.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 1.82. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 3.24 (source consulted: FECYT Feb 2024)
  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 10.43 (source consulted: Dimensions Jun 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-06-03, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 31
  • Scopus: 58
  • Google Scholar: 80
  • OpenCitations: 45

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-06-03:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 37.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 37 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 47.

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (BOMBARDELLI, CLAUDIO) and Last Author (AHEDO GALILEA, EDUARDO).

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been BOMBARDELLI, CLAUDIO.