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Post Info TOPIC: Near-Earth Object Survey Act
Blobrana


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RE: Near-Earth Object Survey Act
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A new report from the National Research Council lays out options NASA could follow to detect more near-Earth objects (NEOs) - asteroids and comets that could pose a hazard if they cross Earth's orbit.  The report says the $4 million the U.S. spends annually to search for NEOs is insufficient to meet a congressionally mandated requirement to detect NEOs that could threaten Earth.
Congress mandated in 2005 that NASA discover 90 percent of NEOs whose diameter is 140 meters or greater by 2020, and asked the National Research Council in 2008 to form a committee to determine the optimum approach to doing so.  In an interim report released last year, the committee concluded that it was impossible for NASA to meet that goal, since Congress has not appropriated new funds for the survey nor has the administration asked for them.
In its final report, the committee lays out two approaches that would allow NASA to complete its goal soon after the 2020 deadline; the approach chosen would depend on the priority policymakers attach to spotting NEOs.  If finishing NASA's survey as close as possible to the original 2020 deadline is considered most important, a mission using a space-based telescope conducted in concert with observations from a suitable ground-based telescope is the best approach, the report says.  If conserving costs is deemed most important, the use of a ground-based telescope only is preferable. 

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Protecting Earth: Four Recommendations



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Blobrana


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New Near-Earth Object Report from National Research Council
In the 2005 NASA Authorisation Act, Congress mandated that by 2020 NASA should be capable of detecting at least 90 percent of objects over 140 metres wide in the vicinity of Earths orbit. "Near-Earth Object Surveys and Hazard Mitigation Strategies," an interim report of a congressionally mandated study by the National Research Council, examines NASA's current ability to survey and detect these near-Earth objects.

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Blobrana


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NASA cannot keep up with killer asteroids
NASA is charged with seeking out nearly all the asteroids that threaten Earth but does not have the money to do the job, a U.S. government report says.
That is because even though Congress assigned the space agency this mission four years ago, it never gave NASA money to build the necessary telescopes, the new National Academy of Sciences report says.

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Blobrana


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Call to reinstate asteroid search
A group of scientists and former NASA astronauts is urging the Rudd government to join the international search for comets or asteroids on a collision course with Earth.
The call comes on the heels of this month's 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and the government's $160.5 million commitment to space science and astronomy, announced in the May budget.

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Blobrana


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Very Close Approaches (

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Blobrana


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Large asteroid impact may cause serious conflicts on Earth
The increasingly frequent impact of asteroids of the 2008 TC3 size may be fraught with serious conflicts on the Earth, Planetary Defence Centre Director Anatoly Zaitsev said.

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Blobrana


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This week's meeting of the U.N. Security Council and its discussions of international political and economic crises are grabbing headlines, but astronauts are having a powwow of their own about another global concern: how to protect Earth from an asteroid or cometary impact.

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Blobrana


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By the end of this year, NASA hopes to find about 90% of the largest asteroids that could potentially strike Earth, a blast that could throw dust into the atmosphere and cause firestorms and acid rain. These asteroids can be as large as mountains but are at least 1 kilometre in diameter. NASA estimates that 900 of these objects are in potentially hazardous range of Earth.

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Blobrana


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NEOimpactor
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Researchers at the University of Southampton have developed a software package for modelling asteroid impacts that enables them to assess the potential human and economic consequences across the globe.

The software, called NEOimpactor, has been specifically developed for measuring the impact of 'small' asteroids under one kilometre in diameter, and early results indicate that the ten countries most at risk are China, Indonesia, India, Japan, the United States, the Philippines, Italy, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Nigeria.

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Blobrana


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Near-Earth object Mission
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NASA's Constellation Program including the deployment of the Orion crew vehicle replacing the space shuttle will first be assigned to international space station flights, then propel humans and cargo to the Moon. Expeditionary missions to Mars and beyond will follow.
But there's ongoing discussion of mounting a piloted mission to an asteroid a voyage by astronauts to a near-Earth object. These proponents feel certain of the scientific payoff from reaching, first-hand, an asteroid perhaps even becoming able to exploit these chunks of celestial flotsam to further humankind's plunge into the cosmos.
Space technologists argue that a NEO trip could be a valuable shakeout of people, equipment, and procedures prior to hurling astronauts beyond the Moon to the distant dunes of Mars.

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