Planet continued to beat the odds as it dodged two asteroids passing via its orbit Wednesday. The narrow escape brought attention to a coalition of scientists and astronauts preparing future space missions to prevent the destruction of mankind by an asteroid. As mankind scans the skies in more detail, it discovers a greater number of “near-earth objects” that underscore the seriousness of the asteroid threat. NASA is stepping up efforts to locate and track asteroids to learn more about how to deflect a catastrophic event. America’s space program has an executive order to develop a plan for sending astronauts to a neighborhood asteroid. A National Aeronautics and Space Administration contractor said it might be possible by 2019.
Meteors become too nearby for ease and comfort
Two small asteroids passed through the space between the Earth and moon Wednesday. Donald Yeomans, manager of NASA’s Near Earth Network, told CNN that such events happen every day that humans aren’t aware of. What makes Wednesday’s asteroid encounter noteworthy is that the two rocks, between 20 and 60 feet in diameter, were spotted en route. NASA said the Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Ariz., detected the asteroids Sunday morning during routine scanning. Yeomans told CNN Earth needs more, larger telescopes to track objects that come so close. He said humans were blissfully ignorant of the asteroid threat until scientists began looking for them in the 1990s and realized they were a problem.
Video simulates disastrous occasion
For mankind to survive, the Association of Space Explorers says a united global effort to create an answer to the asteroid threat is absolutely necessary. In an interview with the Toronto Star, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, ASE’s president, said Planet is gambling the “big one” fails to arrive until mankind has figured out how to protect itself. In 2008, the United Nations received a report from the ASE defining the possibilities accessible for deflecting a killer meteor. To prevent an impact, technology on hand now could get the job done, the report said. One approach smashes a spacecraft into an asteroid, slowing it down enough so Earth can pass the impact point before it arrives. To be successful, mankind would need to start planning a quest anywhere from 10 to 18 years prior to the projected impact. So far mankind hasn’t proven itself capable of such foresight. If that is the case, the video below imagines what is in store.
NASA planning human spaceflight to meteor
A manned mission to an asteroid by 2025 is being studied. President Obama ordered an overhaul of NASA’s space program last spring. The asteroid mission is a key component of his directive. Even though politicians have been warned of the danger posed by asteroids, the Houston Chronicle reports that numerous in Congress would rather relive the glory of the Apollo moon landings that happened 40 years ago. But Lockheed Martin, which has a National Aeronautics and Space Administration contract to build the Orion spacecraft, is proposing a mission to a nearby asteroid by 2019. The aim of the project is to get data that can be used to conceive a method to deflect a threatening meteor.
Further reading
CNN
cnn.com/2010/US/09/08/earth.two.asteroids/index.html?npt=NP1
Toronto Star
thestar.com/article/857006–asteroid-warning-get-ready-for-the-big-one-astronauts-say
Houston Chronicle
chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/7188211.html
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