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.
advertisement
