Need more quarters...
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 ...
So will just tracking the d@mn things make them miss colliding with planet earth? I didn’t think so.
Don’t believe them, they really want the money to keep watching the skies for the advancing intergalactic armada.
“We have 18 days”
Paging Bruce willis/ Harry Stamper
“We have 18 days”
Paging Bruce Willis/ Harry Stamper
Need more quarters...
Between global warming and killer space rocks, it only makes sense to spend like there is no tomorrow. /s
Who are these guys kidding? This is just a handout request. We've had the ability to destroy hundreds of these things for a quarter since about 1979, and for free at home on an Arari system a couple of years later.
So, how ‘bout some money for some asteroid killers to go along with the money to track killer asteroids?
Killer space rocks is a better bet. there is at least some proof of them hitting the earth. Got a few friends in DARPA/NASA biz and they agree with this guy. We have only spotted 15% of the rocks that might be headed our way. Lots of times we have near misses that we find out afterward or only a few days ahead.
Actually, deep down, they figure “start small.” Ask for funding for Killer Space Rock Watch Program today. Somewhere down the road, your great grand nephews ask for funding for a Starfleet Command!
Too bad they just canceled that totally awesome, super-successful missile system that shot down that one satellite.
Of course, the rocks we're talking about start at several million times more massive than a satellite.
A Starfleet Command I wouldn’t mind funding.
Its the bs, I mind funding.
When government people want money, they create a crisis.
Here's a solution.....don't know how to get it into space.
We don't need missiles. What we need is a frigging laaassser. We can call it the Alan Parsons Project.
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