[meteorite-list] Apollo Astronaut Rusty Schweickart to Speak on Asteroid Impact Threat

From: David Pensenstadler <dfpens01_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:53:18 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <704282.83557.qm_at_web90314.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Wow! It's great to get Rusty Schweickart to speak
about his B612 Foundation.

I tried about a year ago to get him to speak at one of
our non-profit organizations meeting, the organization
is The Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh, but his
speaking fee was far too high for our group.

It is good to get his message out though, so you guys
at Fullerton College are very fortunate.

Dave

--- Ron Baalke <baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov> wrote:

>
> From:
>
> Bruce Cordell, Ph.D.
> Dean, Natural Sciences
> Fullerton College
> (714) 992-7106
> bcordell at fullcoll.edu
>
> APOLLO ASTRONAUT RUSTY SCHWEICKART TO SPEAK ON
> ASTEROID IMPACT THREAT
>
> In early February, 2008, the Apollo 9 Astronaut will
> present a public
> talk, "Asteroid Impact - Protecting the Earth" at
> Fullerton College.
>
> The Schweickart event - open to the public and free
> of charge - will
> occur on Tuesday, February 5, 2008 in the Wilshire
> Auditorium at 7 pm at
> Fullerton College [in Fullerton, Calfornia].
> Wilshire Auditorium is
> located at 330 N. Lemon St. at the southeast corner
> of Lemon St. and
> Chapman Ave.
>
> As part of NASA's preparations for the first manned
> Moon landing,
> Schweickart was the lunar module pilot on Apollo 9
> and performed the
> first orbital tests of the vehicle that would later
> take humans down to
> the lunar surface. During his 46 minute space walk
> in Earth orbit,
> Schweickart also tested the portable life support
> system that was used
> by astronauts on the Moon.
>
> Rusty Schweickart serves today as Chairman of the
> Board (and co-founder)
> of the B612 Foundation, a non-profit private group
> that seeks to protect
> the Earth from future asteroid impacts.
>
> The major concern is an estimated 300+ near-Earth
> asteroids over 1 km in
> diameter and another 100,000 smaller bodies (above
> 100 meters) whose
> orbits are currently unknown, but which could pose a
> threat to Earth.
> For example, a 1 km asteroid hitting Earth would
> explode with the energy
> of 70,000 megatons (MT) of TNT; this dwarfs the
> largest H-bomb ever
> exploded by humans (50 MT), and would threaten life
> on Earth. A 100
> meter body that actually impacted in 1908 in Siberia
> released 12 MT of
> energy.
>
> The B612 Foundation is the first organization to
> seriously address this
> threat. Rather than using nuclear bombs to fragment
> the asteroid, they
> propose an "Asteroid Tugboat"; i.e., attaching a
> low-thrust rocket to
> the incoming asteroid and gently nudging it away
> from Earth.
>
> Schweickart's distinguished post-astronaut career
> includes serving for
> two years as the Governor of California's assistant
> for science and
> technology. He was also appointed as Commissioner of
> Energy for the
> State of California and served on the Commission for
> five and a half
> years. In 1998, Schweickart retired from ALOHA
> Networks, Inc. where he
> served as President and CEO. ALOHA was a data
> communications company
> specializing in high performance, wireless internet
> access equipment.
>
> Rusty Schweickart is presented by the Fullerton
> College Foundation, Inc.
> and the Center for the Future at Fullerton College.
>
> More information about this event and other public
> space events this
> Spring, 2008 is at:
>
http://fcfutures.fullcoll.edu/futures.events.s.08.htm
>
>
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>
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>



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Received on Thu 10 Jan 2008 01:53:18 PM PST