ASSESSMENT OF RISKS TO HUMAN SAFETY ASSOCIATED WITH GEOLOGIC HAZARDS ON ASTEROIDS

Space exploration is rapidly expanding with the advent of multinational governmental efforts and private sector ventures. There has been interest in exploring asteroids for scientific purposes, and there have been speculative ventures that would one day hope to utilize the resources that asteroidal bodies could provide. Regardless of reason, it is important to identify and characterize geological hazards for human involvement in the exploration of such bodies to create safe practices and avoid unnecessary risk. In this study, we analyze asteroidal bodies as a whole to find safety risks for work on or near these extraterrestrial work environments.

Preliminary investigations of these bodies have identified several hazards that would pose a risk to workers at or near the surface. A combination of published data coupled with surface evaluations using visual and digital elevation data of asteroidal bodies were used in the hazard identification process. These hazards are created by the unique environmental factors of asteroids such as size of the bodies, cohesive forces, and gravitational forces. Major hazards identified and characterized are dust habits and structural failures of the whole or part of the body which would pose significant apparent risks to workers, depending on work performed. The preliminary results of the investigation are reported here.