[meteorite-list] Planetary Society Offers $50, 000 Prize for Asteroid Tagging Designs

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2006 15:39:30 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <200612132339.PAA29382_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://planetary.org/about/press/releases/2006/1213_Planetary_Society_Offers_50000_Prize.html

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 13. 2006
CONTACT:
Contact Susan Lendroth
Voice: (626) 793-5100
Fax: (626) 793-5528
Email: tps at planetary.org

Planetary Society Offers $50,000 Prize for Asteroid Tagging Designs

San Francisco , CA, - Today at the fall meeting of the American
Geophysical Union, The Planetary Society announced the launch of their
Apophis Mission Design Competition, which invites participants to submit
designs for a mission to rendezvous with and "tag" a potentially
dangerous near-Earth asteroid. Tagging may be necessary to track an
asteroid accurately enough to determine whether it will impact Earth,
and thus help facilitate the decision whether to mount a deflection
mission to alter its orbit. The Planetary Society is offering $50,000 in
prize money for the competition.

Apophis is an approximately 400 meter near-Earth object (NEO), which
will come closer to Earth in 2029 than the orbit of our geostationary
satellites. On that pass, the asteroid will be gravitationally
perturbed to an unknown orbit, one that could cause it to hit Earth in
2036.

"While the odds are very slim that this particular asteroid will hit
Earth in 30 years, they are not zero, and Apophis and other NEOs
represent threats that need to be addressed," said Rusty Schweickart,
Apollo astronaut, head of the Association for Space Explorers NEO
committee.

Bruce Betts, The Planetary Society's Director of Projects said, "With
this competition, we hope not only to generate creative thinking about
tagging Apophis, but also to stimulate greater awareness of the broader
near-Earth object threat."

Very precise tracking may be needed to determine the probability of a
collision in 2036. Such precise tracking may require "tagging" the
asteroid, perhaps with a beacon -- a transponder or reflector -- or some
other method. Exactly how an asteroid could best be tagged is not yet
known, nor is it obvious. "Learning how to do this is the point of the
competition," added Betts.

The Planetary Society is "betting" $50,000 that someone will devise an
innovative solution to the problem. The prize money was contributed and
competition made possible by Dan Geraci, a member of The Planetary
Society Board of Directors, together with donations from Planetary
Society members around the world. Geraci stated, "The time scale may
be unknown, but the danger of a near-Earth object impact is very real.
We need to spur the space community and indeed all people into thinking
about technical solutions."

The Planetary Society is conducting this competition in cooperation with
the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA, the Association of Space
Explorers (ASE), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
(AIAA), and the Universities Space Research Association (USRA). The
Society will present the winning entries to the world's major space
agencies, and the findings of the competition will be presented at
relevant scientific and engineering conferences.

If Apophis passes through a several hundred-meter wide "keyhole" in
2029, it will impact Earth in 2036. While current estimates rate the
probability of impact as very low, Apophis is being used as an example
to enable design of a broader type of mission to any potentially
dangerous asteroid.

The competition design scenario asks participants to imagine that
Earth-based observations of Apophis made over the coming years are not
sufficient to know whether the asteroid will or will not pass through
the 2029 keyhole, and that a better orbit determination is needed to
know if a deflection mission is required. The competition requires that
the tagging mission be designed to return information fast enough so
that by the year 2017 space agencies could determine whether they need
to send a mission to deflect the asteroid from the keyhole.

See Apophis Competition rules. <http://planetary.org/apophis>

Teams or individuals intending to submit a proposal should submit a
Notice of Intent to Propose by March 1, 2007. The deadline for
proposals is August 31, 2007.

The Apophis Mission Design Competition is open to anyone from any
country. Proposals may be submitted by individuals or teams. The
competition is open to teams from academia and industry as well as
student and private groups, and to government groups or individuals not
using government salaries to support their participation in the Contest
(see rules for details).

$50,000 in prize money will be awarded. The judges will determine how to
distribute the award money among one or more prize winners. At least
$25,000 will be awarded to the first prize winner. At least $5,000 is
reserved for the best submission received from a student team (who is
not precluded from winning the first prize), in which all substantive
work was performed by current students (high school, undergraduate, or
graduate), with no more than two faculty advisors. Remaining prize
money may be distributed as honorable mention awards.

Additionally, the first prize winner, or one member of the first prize
winning team, will receive award travel, including transportation, food,
and lodging, to attend a future major science or engineering conference
to present their results.

The Apophis Mission Design Competition Committee includes Bruce Betts,
Director of Projects, The Planetary Society; Daniel Durda, Planetary
Scientist, Southwest Research Institute; Louis Friedman, Executive
Director, The Planetary Society; Lewis Peach, Chief Engineer, USRA;
Russell "Rusty" Schweickart, Apollo astronaut and Association of Space
Explorers NEO Committee Chairman; and Simon "Pete" Worden, Director,
NASA Ames Research Center.

Since The Planetary Society's inception in 1980, the organization has
donated well over a quarter million dollars to asteroid research, about
half of which was awarded through Gene Shoemaker Near Earth Object
Grants to amateur observers, observers in developing countries, and
professional astronomers around the world.

About the Planetary Society

The Planetary Society has inspired millions of people to explore other
worlds and seek other life. Today, its international membership makes
the non-governmental Planetary Society the largest space interest group
in the world. Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray and Louis Friedman founded The
Planetary Society in 1980.

The Planetary Society
65 N. Catalina Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91106-2301 USA
Web: www.planetary.org
Voice: (626) 793-5100
Fax: (626) 793-5528
Email: tps at planetary.org

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Received on Wed 13 Dec 2006 06:39:30 PM PST