William Atkins
Thursday, 13 August 2009 19:23
Science -
Space
Page 2 of 3
The full 38-page interim report by the National Research Council is “forthcoming,” and will eventually appear on the following Web site: NAP Press: “
Near-Earth Object Surveys and Hazard Mitigation Strategies: Interim Report.”
NASA estimates that about 20,000 potentially dangerous asteroids and comets exist in the solar system, and are a potential threat to the safety and well-being of Earth.
Its mission is to locate 90% of them by 2020. So far, they have been able to identify about 6,000 of them, about one-third of the final goal, using the telescope system that the agency already possessed at the time it was delegated the task by Congress.
And, according to the National Academies of Science, NASA was supposed to get more money from Congress in order to add additional telescopes, equipment, and personnel to their system.
The AP report states,
“Rocks between 460 feet and 3,280 feet in diameter can devastate an entire region, said Lindley Johnson, NASA's manager of the Near-Earth Object Program. Objects bigger than that are even more threatening, of course.”
Louis Friedman, the executive director of the Planetary Society, stated within the AP article:
"It shows we have a problem we're not addressing.”
So, NASA was supposed to get more money from the U.S. Congress in order to add more telescopes to the hunting project, but that money never came.
So, where's the money? NASA can still use it to help protect Earth from potentially dangerous asteroids and comets!
Page three explains that NASA still thinks it can complete its directive; that is, if Congress provides some money.
