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Re: US DOD FIREBALL RELEASE


Ron - 

   Continuing - 

> >   Went up to the hearing last Thursday and the 
> >Representatives thought that they had given NASA
> >enough money for this and that they had told NASA
> >to do it 5 years ago but NASA had spent the money 
> >elsewhere.  I personally think Dan Goldin is doing
> >a great job, but on this one item NASA's performance
> >has been less than stellar.
 
> 5 years ago?  Congress works on the budget a year at >the time, not
5 years. 

While the budget is passed anually, there are many
programs that receive authorization for several years. 

> Five years is longer than the terms of most members
> in Congress. 

While their terms of office are less than five years,
they are usually re-elected to several terms in a row.

> The point is, the asteroid program has been >underfunded. Case in
point, a report was presented to >Congress by NASA in 1995 for a NEO
program that cost >only about $5 million year.  Congress did not fund
it. 

That's the funny thing: the members of the House 
Space Subcommittee thought that they had received
this report, which they referred to as the "Shoemaker
Report", in 1993, and that at that time they had instructed NASA to
put more resources into this area
at that time.

Next time I see either Rep. Brown or Rep. Rohrabacher
I'll be sure to pass along the message that Ron 
Baalke from JPL is certain that they are mistaken 
about what they suggested for NASA to do then. (Just joking,Ron. I
don't know who at NASA is going to get the job of telling them that,
but whoever he is, he has
my sympathy.)

> >>>I think that if Titans werew used to launch NASA's > >>>small
probes to asteroids and comets, this 
> >>>would give the AF the experience it needs for  >>>planetary
defense at a pretty reasonable cost,  >>>though still in the $200-$400
million range.

> >> The military have already attempted an asteroid 
> >>mission and failed: Clementine.  Clementine did > > >>have a
successful moon mapping mission, but they > > >>lost the spacecraft
due to human error before it > >>could reach asteroid Geographos.  The
sad part is > > >>the human error could of easily been avoided.  They
> >>sent a wrong command to the spacecraft which caused > >>it to
expend all of its remaining propellant and > >>spin out of control. 
All command sequences should
> >>have  been tested on the ground first before they > > >>were sent
to the spacecraft.
 
> >  Even more reason to give them some more practice!
> >Imagine the headline: "AF interceptor to Earth 
> >approaching asteroid lost due to human error."  
 
> Instead of giving the Air Force billions of dollars just so 'they
can practice',

The number for the AF using Titan EELVs instead of small launchers to
launch NASA's outyear probes should be around $150 million additional
per launch, or about
$300-$450 million.
 
> I'd rather see a cooperative effort between the AF and NASA. NASA
has proposed such in the previously mentioned report.

But that only covered NASA bumming time on the AF's
telescopes, which the AF was generous enough to give to NASA. Either
NASA should build its own 'scopes and let the AF go back to doing the
kind of work that it needs to do with their own equipment, or the AF
should be allowed to build some new telescopes and turn over its old
telescopes to NASA.

> NASA have already successfully sent spacecraft past >asteroids and
comets,  and have several more like >missions coming in the next 5
years. There is no need >to duplicate effort.
 
Right - and since NASA has no experience with nuclear
charges, and since Dr. Huntress has clearly stated that mitigation is
DoD's role, maybe someone at NASA needs to about working with the AF
on the launch of those small asteroid and comet probes and Clementine
II, instead of turning this into a turf fight.

                                 Best wishes - 
                                     Ed

  
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