[meteorite-list] Re: Asteroid AND COMET Defense: NASA to Formulate Planetary Protection Plan

From: E.P. Grondine <epgrondine_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Jun 28 12:53:21 2006
Message-ID: <20060628165315.26909.qmail_at_web36902.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Hi Ron -

Amazing.

It only took an act of Congress to get NASA management
off its butt and doing what it should have been doing
years ago to ensure the safety of the people of this
country.

Congratulations.

You know how reluctant I am to bring this up here,
what with all the divorces and blown sales and
everything, but does JPL have any idea right now where
SW3's fragments are going to be in 2022? Of course,
they're small and slow, but they still might be quite
a nuisance then.

By the way, considering that NASA has yet to
straighten out its crater counts, in case you all need
an estimate as to what the impact hazard actually is
for operational purposes, my book Man and Impact in
the Americas is available for a mere $34.95 plus
shipping by calling either 1-877-494-0044 or
1-800-718-4514. In my opinion, several copies of it
would make a great addition to the JPL library. It
also makes a great gift for legislators - I know this
personally because it already has for some of them.
If you call the 800 number you can get personally
signed copies if you ask for them.

In closing, Ron, if you could please drop me a line
and let me know what NASA plans to do to carry out
their responsibilities under Brown. To promote book
sales I will be speaking to several hundred thousand
people on talk radio yet once again soon, and it might
be nice if I knew what NASA intends to do before then.

say hi to Don and everyone for me -
EP
off to powwow to recuperate
PS - I won't be making Beijing on 27 July either

--- Ron Baalke <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov> wrote:

>
> http://www.space.com/news/060628_neo_workshop.html
>
> Asteroid Defense: NASA to Formulate Planetary
> Protection Plan
> By Leonard David
> space.com
> 28 June 2006
>
> VAIL, Colorado - NASA has begun a fact-finding
> appraisal of how best to
> detect, track, catalogue and characterize near-Earth
> asteroids and
> comets - and what can be done to deflect an object
> found on course to
> strike our planet.
>
> The need to prepare is highlighted this week as
> astronomers watch a
> large asteroid that will pass close to Earth on July
> 3.
>
> Selected experts from a variety of fields are here
> this week at a NASA
> workshop on Near-Earth Object (NEO) Detection,
> Characterization and
> Threat Mitigation. The meeting is a unique, "idea
> gathering" event being
> carried out under direction of the U.S. Congress.
> The intent is to
> provide lawmakers with an "executable program" - but
> also one that will
> clearly need funds to implement that program in an
> orderly and timely
> fashion.
>
> NASA is on a fast-track to provide by year's end an
> initial report to
> Congress that includes an analysis of possible
> alternatives that might
> be employed to divert an object on a likely
> collision course with Earth.
>
> The U.S. Congress has tagged NASA to use its "unique
> competence" to deal
> with the potential hazard faced by Earth from such
> celestial wanderers,
> in order to help establish a warning and mitigation
> strategy.
>
> Another chief agenda item on the table is putting in
> place the survey
> skills to spot NEOs equal to or greater than 460
> feet (140 meters) in
> diameter. In plotting out that survey program, the
> merits of
> ground-based and space-based equipment are to be
> mulled over to achieve
> 90 percent completion of a NEO catalogue within 15
> years.
>
> Global...not national problem
>
> This week's gathering is viewed by many as a
> turning-point in shaping a
> NEO action plan.
>
> "It is historic in the sense that it's the first
> time the U.S.
> government has ever had a formal interest in the
> problem, in the global
> problem, that is, in the detection, tracking and
> beginning to look at
> the mitigation issues. I think that's very
> significant," said William
> Ailor of The Aerospace Corporation and on the
> workshop's mitigation
> working group.
>
> Similar in view was Russell Schweickart, former
> Apollo astronaut and
> Chairman of the B612 Foundation. This group consists
> of scientists,
> technologists, astronomers, astronauts, and other
> specialists that want
> to significantly alter the orbit of an asteroid in a
> controlled manner
> by 2015.
>
> "This is really the first time that NASA will have
> ever put the words
> NASA and asteroid deflection together internally -
> so it's a very
> positive move," Schweickart told SPACE.com in a
> pre-workshop interview.
> He later advised workshop participants that "this
> isn't a national
> issue...this is a planetary issue."
>
> Schweickart added that, given the likely scenario of
> decades of warning
> time, "this is not a last minute search and destroy
> mission."
>
> Unfriendly fire
>
> There's been no shortage of ideas how to fend off
> unfriendly fire from
> the cosmos: laser beams, space tugboats, gravity
> tractor, and solar
> sails for example, as well as using powerful
> anti-NEO bombs,
> conventional as well as nuclear.
>
> Ailor, also Director of The Aerospace Corporation's
> Center for Orbital
> and Reentry Debris Studies, told SPACE.com that
> creative ways to deflect
> Earth-harming NEOs are far from being exhausted.
>
> "People have put a lot of concepts on the table over
> time," Ailor said.
> "Now we're beginning to try and develop an organized
> way of looking at
> those things and finding out which ones are really
> viable in the
> short-term, medium-term, and what technologies do we
> need to protect and
> develop for the long-term as well."
>
> A key message early in the workshop is that
> detection of NEOs is a first
> priority. The on-going, three-part mantra agreed to
> by attendees is
> simple and direct: "Find them early...and find them
> early...and find them
> early."
>
> Realistic alternatives
>
> A likely setting is one where a modest Earth impact
> probability by a NEO
> is identified decades in advance, then, future
> mitigation technologies
> would be most appropriate.
>
> Furthermore, "opportunity science" could be derived
> from such a
> response. NASA has an interest in harvesting NEOs
> for their minerals as
> well as siphoning from them water to further
> long-range space
> exploration goals.
>
> Former shuttle astronaut Tom Jones, taking part in
> the meeting, has had
> a long-standing interest in asteroids and told
> SPACE.com:
>
> "The NEO workshop this week is both informative -
> with the latest NEO data
> presented by experts in the field - and encouraging
> as the space agency
> seems intent on developing realistic alternatives
> for detecting most of
> the potentially hazardous NEOs. That's
> good...Congress expects NASA to
> answer the mail on how to deal with NEOs. This
> meeting is an important
> move forward in beginning to materially address the
> hazard."
>
> As if a warning shot of sorts, several workshop
> attendees made note of
> next week's close flyby of Earth of asteroid 2004
> XP14. Discovered in
> late 2004, the space rock will slip by Earth on July
> 3, passing just
> beyond the Moon's average distance from Earth.
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Received on Wed 28 Jun 2006 12:53:15 PM PDT