For other space news go to: www.spacetoday.net
Posted on 08/13/2009 1:41:50 PM PDT by presidio9
NASA needs more cash in order to meet its goal of finding nearby space rocks that could hit Earth in a devastating impact, a new report says.
Congress ordered NASA in 2005 to find and track 90 percent of the large asteroids near Earth by 2020, but did not set aside the necessary funds required to do the job, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Academy of Sciences.
Without that funding, NASA will not be able to build the new facilities and telescopes required to track potentially threatening asteroids down to the size of about 460 feet (140 meters) across, according to the interim report.
"I think they're pretty much right on," said Lindley Johnson, NASA's manager of the Near-Earth Objects program at the agency's headquarters in Washington.
Johnson told SPACE.com Wednesday that NASA has estimated it needs between $800 million and $1 billion over the course of 12 to 15 years to build and support the more sensitive telescopes required to meet its goal of tracking most of the near-Earth objects.
Astronomer Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object program office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., has said that about 15 percent of the objects 460 feet wide and larger have been found, and only 5 percent of objects down to about 164 feet (50 meters) in size.
One of the top space rocks under observation is 2007 VK184, a 425-foot-wide (130 meters) asteroid that has a 1-in-2,940 chance of hitting Earth sometime between 2048 and 2057. An impact, if it occurred,
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
One thing that the scientist and the science fiction guys and the Scientologist don’t like to talk about is that even if we spent 10% of our budget on space for the the next 50 years, there’s a good chance we nobody would be putting a boot on Mars be then anyway. It’s, like, REALLY far away. And it’s a lot less interesting there than the South Pole anyway.
Bush’s fault!!!
We should be happy that we got free healthcare when the giant space rock kills us all....
I would be in favor of diverting some of the funding for “Global Warming” research/worship, towards this endeavor.
I don’t know. Maybe getting pelted with space rocks would be good for us. During the ensuing choas we can get rid of the libs and start over like it was 1776. Kind of like a cosmic reset button.
I know its budget season, because NASA likes is great at catastrophy mongering in ways that will get them more money. But if we don't get the debt under control, by 2048 we will be more like the Amish than a spacefaring nation, and so if something does hit us, there won't be anything to do about it anyway.
I don’t have the knowledge base to know if this is accurate or not, but I do believe that NASA is one of the few agencies that personifies human intelligence and the individuality of curiosity, imagination and personal excellence.
All you have to do is look at the Moon to see how much crap has collided with us. It’s only a matter of time. I just hope it’s not in my time.
“there is at least some proof of them hitting the earth.”
Some? There is lots and lots of very large impacts, leaving craters 10s of miles in diameter - there’s even one in France I believe.
There a big round hole blasted into the ocean floor off the Yukatan coast... seems it was made around 65 MYA...
The astroids we have least knowledge of or time to react to come from behind the sun. The 15% figure is an estimate based on a guess about the total number. The actual number is likely much higher.
Then there are comets which we’ve seen hit Jupiter and cause numerous big holes.
They did? Do you know the name of the system and why it was canceled by whom?
Any info would be appreciated, Thanks.
Would love to see that landing where they back down - land a rocket without tipping over - on uneven soil and take off without a structure to hold up the rocket - or even a way to fuel it.
And all done with computers less powerful than a ten dollar calculator at Office Depot. The flag blowing in the wind is a nice touch...
NASA also has brought us a total belief and faith in Global Warming. How could we NOT trust them?
Would love to see that landing where they back down to the moon - land a rocket without tipping over - on uneven soil and take off without a structure to hold up the rocket - or even a way to fuel it.
And all done with computers less powerful than a ten dollar calculator at Office Depot. Wow!
The flag blowing in the wind was a nice touch too...
NASA brought us their total belief and faith in Global Warming.
How could we NOT trust them to blow space rocks out of the sky?
Would love to see that landing - where they "back down" to the moon - landing a rocket on end without it tipping over - on uneven soil. And take off without a structure to hold up the rocket - or even a way to fuel it.
Unbelievable.
And all done with computers less powerful than a ten dollar calculator at Office Depot today. Wow!
The flag blowing in the wind - - nice touch ...(NASA gave a different story for the waving flag back then - don't they read their own stuff?)
NASA brought us their total belief and faith in Global Warming. Isn't that enough reason to trust them? How careful they were with a precise system of collecting temperature data from around the world...
How could we NOT trust them to blow space rocks out of the sky? Give those boys whatever money they want.../s
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