Re: [cdn-nucl-l] " Earth At Risk: New Calls For Planetary Defense "

["Englishes" <english@webhart.net>]

Is this the same crowd that are searching for extraterrestrial intelligence,
or just another example of the paranoid security establishment gone mad?
Are these people for real?
Cheers,
Andy




----- Original Message -----
From: "Jaro" <jaro-10kbq@sympatico.ca>
To: "multiple cdn" <cdn-nucl-l@mailman1.cis.McMaster.CA>
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2004 8:40 PM
Subject: [cdn-nucl-l] " Earth At Risk: New Calls For Planetary Defense "


> http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/planetary_defense_040225.html
> Earth At Risk: New Calls For Planetary Defense
> By Leonard David
> Senior Space Writer
> posted: 10:52 am ET
> 25 February 2004
>
> GARDEN GROVE, California - It is past time to get serious about planetary
> defense, experts say. The threat of Earth being on the receiving end of a
> cosmic calling card in the form of an asteroid or comet is real.
>
> Despite increasing scientific agreement regarding the danger posed by
> near-Earth objects smashing into our planet, governmental steps to deal
with
> the issue are missing-in-action. At present, only patchwork and
under-funded
> research efforts are underway to robustly detect, track, catalog and plot
> out strategies to thwart menacing asteroids and comets that place Earth at
> risk.
>
> An international confab of experts is taking part in The Planetary Defense
> Conference: Protecting Earth from Asteroids here this week and sponsored
by
> The Aerospace Corporation and the American Institute of Aeronautics and
> Astronautics (AIAA).
>
> Tepid response
>
> The four-days of discussion were kicked off by Congressman Dana
Rohrabacher,
> Chairman of the House Science Committee's Space and Aeronautics
Subcommittee
>
> Rohrabacher noted that it took the attacks of Sept. 11 for the country to
> focus on global terrorism. "I hope that it won't take that type of
> catastrophe for us to start paying attention to the threats of near-Earth
> objects," he said.
>
> The lawmaker said the political reaction to the worries over space rocks
has
> garnered "a very tepid response" to date, noting that money spent so far
on
> the issue has been "a pittance."
>
> President George W. Bush's new visionary blueprint for NASA - including a
> human return to the Moon and sending astronauts to Mars - was saluted by
> Rohrabacher. That plan, he added, can also support planetary defense
> objectives.
> "The Moon could well be a base of operations that we could use as a means
to
> defend this planet in a timely way, and a more effective way, against near
> Earth objects," Rohrabacher explained.
>
> Taking a "let's get going," roll-up-your sleeves attitude, Rohrabacher
said
> there is need to start now in readying the technologies necessary to
deflect
> an Earth-threatening object. "What we need to do is build from right
> here...this moment. The people in this room can save the planet."
>
> Warning time
>
> There is no question that an asteroid has Earth's name on it, astronomers
> agree. But where the rock is and when that impact is going to occur is
> unknown, said David Morrison of the NASA Astrobiology Institute at the
space
> agency's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California.
>
> NASA now supports -- in collaboration with the United States Air Force --
> the Spaceguard Survey and its goal of discovering and tracking 90 percent
of
> the Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) with a diameter greater than about
one-half
> mile (1 kilometer) by 2008. If one of these big bruisers were to strike
our
> planet, it would spark catastrophic global effects that would include
severe
> regional devastation and global climate change.
>
> By charting the whereabouts of these celestial objects, it is anticipated
> that decades of warning time is likely if one of the large-sized space
> boulders was found to be on a heading that intersects Earth.
>
> But a uniform message from the experts attending this week's planetary
> defense gathering is extending the survey to spot smaller objects, down to
> some 500 feet (150 meters) in diameter. These asteroids can wreak havoc
too,
> but on a more localized scale.
>
> For instance, if one of these smaller asteroids were to strike along the
> California coast, millions of people might be killed, Morrison said. A
> little further to the east, he added, "a nice crater out in the desert"
> would become a tourist attraction.
>
> Find them early
>
> In identifying ways to deal with hazardous asteroids, a first order of
> business is gaining a better understanding of the enemy. That is, are they
> fluffy stuff, constituting a rubble pile, or are they tough-as-nails slabs
> of iron? Along with these physical properties, astronomers want to know
more
> about their overall shape, rotation rate, and whether an object might play
> host to a smaller companion body.
>
> Developing a robust deflection scheme so an asteroid doesn't hit Earth
means
> taking into account these factors and a host of other issues, said Don
> Yeomans, a leading asteroid and comet scientist at the Jet Propulsion
> Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.
>
> Developing a viable mitigation campaign, Yeomans explained, demands three
> prerequisites: "You need to find them early. You need to find them early.
> And we need to find them early."
>
> Friendly-fire
>
> Now being discussed is a way to flex, test, and calibrate present day
> computer and hardware tools to first detect and then keep a trained eye on
a
> potential Earth impactor.
>
> There are currently three Earth-impactors en route. But don't worry. It's
> all friendly fire.
>
> NASA's Genesis spacecraft is headed this way in September of this year. So
> too is the Stardust spacecraft in January 2006, as will be a Japanese
> asteroid sample mission in June 2007. All three are designed to reenter
the
> Earth's atmosphere and touch down on terra firma, each carrying a precious
> cargo of scooped-up specimens.
>
> "So we do have current impactors coming back," Yeomans said. While still
in
> the preliminary discussion stage, the idea is to use these incoming
> spacecraft to shake out coordinated observations, sharpen orbit
calculation
> skills, and help fine-tune procedures now in place for detecting and
> tracking asteroids and comets, he told SPACE.com.
>
> Yeomans said about 40 objects at least 3 feet (1 meter) in size enter the
> Earth's atmosphere every year. Some of these incoming objects have been
> observed by space-based infrared and visible sensors and other
ground-based
> detection devices operated by the U.S. military and other government
> agencies, he said.
>
> "They have indeed made many of these observations available to scientific
> investigators," Yeomans said. "It would be nicer to get these things [the
> data] a little more quickly than 3-4 months down the road,' he added, with
> near-simultaneous flow of information about such events seen as ideal.
>
> Largest meteorite fall
>
> Space and ground sensors proved useful last year in studying a major
meteor
> explosion in Earth's atmosphere. The event also brought home the point of
> how a natural event can take on the guise of a human-made terrorist act.
>
> Dee Pack, Director of The Aerospace Corporation's Remote Sensing
Department,
> detailed a large-scale meteorite fall that occurred over Park Forest,
> Illinois on March 27, 2003.
> "This is the largest meteorite fall over a densely populated area in
modern
> history," Pack and a team of fellow specialists reported at the meeting.
The
> initial mass of the object is now estimated to be nearly 8 tons.
> The explosion took place at nearly midnight local time. Fragments of the
> airbursting meteorite cut through several roofs. The explosive
> disintegration of the object lit up the night sky to daylight levels.
Sonic
> booms were heard over a wide area. Numbers of meteorites resulting from
the
> event were recovered, later classified as bits of a stony space rock.
> Making it all the more jittery for those folks in the fall zone, the
object
> exploded during Operation Iraqi Freedom, with many witnesses worried this
> natural event was some kind of massive explosion or nuclear event.
>
> Pack and his colleagues contend: "These large meteors, or superbolides,
are
> of concern to the Department of Defense due to their ability to mimic
> nuclear events." This type of extraordinary Earth-crossing object serves
to
> train global observers to better recognize and characterize these
naturally
> occurring huge explosive events.
>
> Who do you call?
>
> A clear and present danger for those studying planetary defense is the
lack
> of any chain-of-command to take on the duties of dealing with the prospect
> of disruptive collisions from asteroids and comets.
> This "who do you call?" factor deserves immediate attention, said Michael
> Belton of Belton Space Exploration Initiatives in Tucson, Arizona.
>
> Belton detailed the findings of a NASA-sponsored 2002 workshop. It brought
> together over 75 top scientists, engineers and military experts from the
> United States, Europe, and Japan to review the science behind mitigating
> hazardous comets and asteroids.
>
> A central finding: There is lack of any assigned responsibility to any
> national or international governmental organization to prepare for a
> disruptive collision. There is absence of any authority to act in
> preparation for some future collision-mitigation attempt, Belton said.
>
> The 2002 workshop did recommend that NASA be assigned the duty to advance
> work in beefing up the science and ability to respond to an imminent
> collision with an asteroid or comet nucleus. Furthermore, the now-in
> progress Spaceguard Survey should be extended to scope out possible
> impactors down to 655 feet (200 meters) in size.
>
> In addition, Belton said that there is need for the Defense Department to
> more rapidly communicate surveillance data on natural airbursts. And
lastly,
> there's need for governmental policy makers to formulate a chain of
> responsibility for action in the event a threat to the Earth becomes
known.
>
> "In other words...there isn't anybody to call. There is nobody there. And
> there's nobody with authority...nobody with any resources," Belton said.
> "And we need to correct that."
> ==================================
>
>
> http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/02/24/defending.earth.ap/index.html
> Scientists want to be ready to block asteroid from hitting Earth
> Tuesday, February 24, 2004 Posted: 1703 GMT ( 1:03 AM HKT)
>
> GARDEN GROVE, California (AP) -- The asteroid believed to have wiped out
> dinosaurs 65 million years ago was rare but hardly unique, say scientists
> gathered to discuss ways of aggressively defending our planet from another
> such space rock, including by detonating nukes in space.
>
> Asteroids capable of inflicting damage on a global scale hit the Earth
> roughly every million years, and we shouldn't dawdle in developing a
method
> of deflecting them, say the scientists attending a four-day planetary
> defense conference in suburban Orange County.
>
> Scientists have proposed a variety of strategies to nudge an asteroid off
> course. The list is the stuff of science fiction and includes using
lasers,
> mirrors or atomic weapons launched from Earth.
>
> Unlike any other type of natural hazard, an asteroid impact could kill
> billions of people. But it's also the only natural hazard that can be
> prevented, at least in principle, scientists said.
> "It's a thing we know will happen sometime in our future so the
responsible
> thing is for people to do something about it," said William Ailor, of The
> Aerospace Corp., which sponsored the conference with the American
Institute
> of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
>
> Astronomers estimate there are between 900 and 1,100 near-Earth asteroids
> one kilometer -- about six-tenths of a mile -- or larger in diameter. Of
> those, nearly 700 already have been discovered and cataloged.
> It's not clear what sort of damage one of those rocks could cause were it
to
> strike Earth, although destruction on a global scale is likely.
> "We don't know what they would do, and we don't want to conduct a science
> experiment to find out," said David Morrison of NASA's Ames Research
Center.
>
>
> Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-California, introduced a bill this month to
bolster
> NASA spending on the search for near-Earth asteroids 100 yards or more
> across.
> Even something of that size, were it to strike, say, the Pacific Ocean,
> could generate a tsunami capable of destroying the major cities along the
> West Coast, Ailor said.
>
> Early detection of an inbound asteroid could provide years to decades of
> warning -- enough time to mount a mission to push it off course, Ailor
said.
> Slowing an asteroid down by even a few inches a second could change its
> trajectory enough to prevent its ever crossing paths with the Earth.
>
> The Earth moves in space the equivalent of its own diameter in just six
> minutes. So to move an Earth-bound asteroid off target, it would be enough
> to delay its arrival time by six minutes, allowing it to harmlessly sweep
> past, Morrison said.
> =========
>
>
>