Renewed Call for Asteroid Defense
ASE Calls for Global Cooperation to Confront Asteroid Threats
“At a public event today at New York’s American Museum of Natural History, the Association of Space Explorers (ASE), a professional society of astronauts and cosmonauts, issued a challenge to the global community to take the next vital steps to confront the threat from dangerous asteroids. The ASE Committee on Near-Earth Objects statement follows the United Nations General Assembly adoption if a suite of proposals to create an international decision-making mechanism for planetary asteroid defense.”
Not just NASA, this needs to be an international effort. The UN held talks and their are discussions abroad. B612 has been a champion of the call to find the Near-Earth Asteroids (NEA). There are about 1 million 40 foot or larger and only 10,000 are now known. Not all are hazards but we need to find them all.
Once found, their orbits determined, NEAs will never again be a risk to the Earth and Mankind. They will become the asset that permits humanity to expand into the rest of the Solar System. [some NEAs will always need to be tracked to assure that perturbations do not make them hazards]
There are many that believe NASA should be funded to build the Sentinel type telescope that B612 has conceived. B612 deserves and has a place at the table but nations need to join to build the NEA finder scope. Its likely not a new idea to them, but B612 should expand and declare themselves to an international non-profit. At present they are seen as an American entity. Besides UN activities their expanded efforts would help assure that the NEA risk does not fall to the wayside.
Before any such telescope is operational, it is absolutely correct that NASA should increase funding and expand ground observations and detect. Not only did the Federal shutdown stop observations, just the Monsoon season in AZ does so for about 4 months during the Summer. Additionally, the Siding Spring Observatory funding ended in July so there is effectively no search on-going in the southern hemisphere now. Yes, Sentinel is the only practical way to find them all and especially in a reasonable time of 10 or 20 years. Before that happens, the ground effort will contribute, will keep the interest high and also continue to help monitor, measure, track asteroids even after Sentinel.
John Lewis of Univ. Arizona and DSI gave a talk at SETI. Here is a link to his talk – http://www.youtube.com/watc… . He describes the resource potential of asteroids. It is amazing how much material and potential there is. As robotics improve, asteroids will be mined, some materials returned to Earth and others for space developments, travel and commerce. Asteroid mining is probably the technology and resource that we do not fathom at this moment just as our grandfathers did not imagine how air travel and communications would change the World. Asteroids, once no longer a risk, will become the resource that expands humanity throughout the Solar System.
Attached is one slide from his talk. Metallic asteroids are a small percentage of the NEA population. The other types provide all the other raw materials needed to sustain life in space, for inter-planetary travel and to eventually far exceed the demands on Earth-based mining.
Besides the observation program to find NEAs and the hazardous ones, NASA has some plans but needs more extensive plans to flyby dozens if not hundreds of NEAs. Space commerce based on asteroid mining does not have the upfront funding to accomplish this early task – finding and surveying many small asteroids. This flyby survey of NEAs could be accomplished in a short period, ~10 years, and provide much more detailed information on the properties of NEAs that will permit the early asteroid miners to pick and choose and begin an incredible new industry.
Don’t worry if we ever do end up in the bulls eye; the august servants of the people will form a commission, start an investigation into who’s to blame, but in the end we’ll just wave our national health insurance cards at it while it makes a great big smoking hole in the world. Pardon me, am I being too negative? Probably, but I wouldn’t count on our society’s ability to step back and see the big picture. People writ largely play checkers not chess.
not to worry
the same folks who dislike the national healthcare cards also hate all things having to do with science
whether we all die from a slow death do the oceans raising over centuries or a fast death by a big comet the folks who hate all things that benefit the most folks will see to it this great comet will never be discovered before it hits
you see after all large NEO’s are discovered we still will not be able to see deep into the ourt cloud so see the danger that comes every hundred million years……………..
chess is a long game so we are protected from those who,s individuality guides them to the thought that not having a national health care card is always someones else problem
Gorbachev suggested to Reagan that the security council and the general assembly establish a UN space agency,
Most UN bodies are voluntary as to funding and participation so this idea is harmless
I would have such an agency build spaceports along the eqeater in Africa, Asia, pacific islands home to most of the third world country’s.
if such an agency has a budget of say $800 million per year this would be enough for a modest science program to investigate NEO’s
most of this funding would come from world governments foreign aid programs and some science cooperation programs. some of the money would end up back with manufacturers of space craft.
the third world and human kind would gain spaceports in Kenya/Tanzania
muaritous
Seychelles
Indonesia
Australia
the pacific
Brazil
If I where that nation I would be tempted to now and then pay the additional price of launching a commercial cargoes from my territory or ask for trades for launching humans
an interesting economic parameter; my poor nation has a free spaceport but it is underutilized as to its operational costs, how do we commercialize it?
if we build it will they come?