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Private Efforts Fill Gaps In Earth's Asteroid Defenses

Posted by kdawson on from the tunguska-was-a-warning-shot dept.

Hugh Pickens sends us to Seed Magazine for an update on Earth's defenses against collisions with near-earth objects (NEOs). The bottom line is that government is moving slowly on cataloging NEOs but private bodies are picking up some of the slack. "In 2005, the US Congress directed NASA to catalog 90 percent of potentially hazardous NEOs greater than 140 meters in diameter by the year 2020 but NASA has yet to allot funds to the project. Increasingly, coordinated private efforts are working to fill the gap in Earth's NEO defenses. Earlier this year, Bill Gates and Charles Simonyi donated a combined $30 million to the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), keeping it on track for first light in 2014. LSST will survey the entire visible sky deeply in multiple colors every week with its three-billion pixel digital camera, probing the mysteries of Dark Matter and Dark Energy and by opening a movie-like window on objects that change or move, the LSST will also detect and catalog NEOs."

8 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Still may need Bruce by tuxgeek · · Score: 5, Funny

    Keep Bruce Willis near by just in case

    --
    "Suppose you were an idiot...and suppose you were a member of Congress...but I repeat myself." Mark Twain
  2. Poor Mr Gates by Lotar · · Score: 1, Funny

    Still looking for a ride home.

  3. Re:Slightly offtopic (But about a NEO) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    This probably an old sprr'krtzz unit from the primary invasion phase. These things can stay in orbit for aeons.

    -- Zworgh 54K

  4. Missing information from TFA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Gates only contributed the money to LSST so they would run vista on it

  5. Private asteroid security by S3D · · Score: 4, Funny

    Nice city you have here. What a pity, 99942 Apophis going to wipe it out in decade. However for couple of billion we can change its course a little. What ? According to your date you are safe ? Believe me it's going to hit you. We have just installed propulsion system on it's surface.

  6. Re:Orbital Debris Quarterly News by commodoresloat · · Score: 4, Funny

    Jesus, man, there's a publication called "Orbital Debris Quarterly News"? That sounds so completely made up. Is there a pull-out centerfold every issue with lurid photos of space rocks? I can't wait to get a copy of this for bathroom reading, keep it right next to "Oatmeal Enthusiast"....

  7. NEOs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    What about Meteors Or Rocks Presently Headed Earthwards Unless Stopped (MORPHEUS)?

  8. Re:Astreroid "Defenses" by somersault · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think it would be more appropriate to call it Missile Command

    --
    which is totally what she said