15-06-2010, 05:34 AM
Planetary Defense Against Asteroids
On the scale of threats for the future, I don’t put fear of asteroids high on the list in an atmosphere (pardon the pun) of environmental disaster, pending financial collapse, regular flirtations with nuclear war, state-sanctioned assassination, rendition and torture, and peak oil.
We are told, though, that “It’s just a matter of time. Some researchers put the odds of a civilization-wrecker at one in the next 300,000 years, others at 1 in 10 for the next century.”
Perhaps I need to take a couple of Prozac, or have someone roll me a couple of joints, or just run to the package store for a couple of bottles of Drambuie. But if indeed there are folks out there who worry about having a too-close encounter with a celestial hobo, I offer up the following, prompted by a new listing at Cryptome of a NASA meeting to discuss the necessary planning in a town called (fittingly enough) Boulder, Colorado.
4 June 2010
http://www.federalregister.gov/OFRUpload...408_PI.pdf
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
Notice: (10-065)
NASA Advisory Council; Ad-Hoc Task Force on Planetary Defense; Meeting.
AGENCY: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
ACTION: Notice of Meeting.
SUMMARY: In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 92-463, as amended, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announces a meeting of the Ad-Hoc Task Force on Planetary Defense of the NASA Advisory Council.
DATES: Thursday, July 8, 2010, 8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., and Friday, July 9, 2010, 8:00 a.m. - 12:45 p.m. (all times are Mountain Daylight Savings Time).
ADDRESS: Millennium Harvest House, 1345 28th Street, Boulder, Colorado 80302 (room will be posted in hotel lobby).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Jane Parham, Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546, 202/358-1715; jane.parham@nasa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The agenda topics for the meeting will include:
• Work plan and timeline
• Report on fact-finding meetings
• Asteroid detection, warning, response, and concepts for deflection
• International coordination on planetary defense against asteroids
The meeting will be open to the public up to the seating capacity of the room. It is imperative that the meeting be held on this date to accommodate the scheduling priorities of the key participants. Visitors will be required to sign a register when they enter the meeting room.
For questions, please call Ms. Jane Parham, at (202) 358-1715.
P. Diane Rausch
Advisory Committee Management Officer
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
June 9, 2010
[FR Doc. 2010-14408 Filed 06/14/2010 at 8:45 am; Publication Date: 06/15/2010]
http://cryptome.org/0001/nasa061510.htm
So I Googled, thus alerting the NSA, the Israelis and the FBI of my intense interest in rocks in space, and here’s what I found. Note that I did not dig too far.
Hollywood, of course, has already weighed in. “Deep Impact was lauded by astronomers as being more scientifically accurate[2], but Armageddon fared better at the box office.[3] They were about equally received by critics…”
It’s an issue previously studied: http://www.planetarydefense.info/
And, of course, it has happened before: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_event
A 1998 presentation entitled “PLANETARY DEFENSE,[B]ASTEROID DEFLECTION & THE FUTURE OF HUMAN INTERVENTION IN THE EARTH'S BIOSPHERE”can be found here:[B]http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/oberg.html[/B][/B]
A 2009 WiredScience article “How to Defend Earth Against an Asteroid Strike” can be found here: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/planetdefense/#ixzz0qtAKcfas
There’s a dedicated blog, of course: http://planetarydefense.blogspot.com/ ,
a society: http://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/mirrorbees/ ,
legal issues, and international laws to be concerned with: http://members.tripod.com/~Ray_Martin/RiskAnal/DefAgAst.html ,
and PowerPoints in purple:
http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/pdf/pres/st...ech-43.pdf
![[Image: asteroid_damage.jpg]](http://www.centauri-dreams.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/asteroid_damage.jpg)
The areas of maximum infrastructure vulnerability following an asteroid impact. Credit: Nick Bailey/University of Southampton.
Oh, and a music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-e69J8baZQ
We used to have neo-conservatives and neo-liberals to worry about.
Now we also have NEO’s.
On the scale of threats for the future, I don’t put fear of asteroids high on the list in an atmosphere (pardon the pun) of environmental disaster, pending financial collapse, regular flirtations with nuclear war, state-sanctioned assassination, rendition and torture, and peak oil.
We are told, though, that “It’s just a matter of time. Some researchers put the odds of a civilization-wrecker at one in the next 300,000 years, others at 1 in 10 for the next century.”
Perhaps I need to take a couple of Prozac, or have someone roll me a couple of joints, or just run to the package store for a couple of bottles of Drambuie. But if indeed there are folks out there who worry about having a too-close encounter with a celestial hobo, I offer up the following, prompted by a new listing at Cryptome of a NASA meeting to discuss the necessary planning in a town called (fittingly enough) Boulder, Colorado.
4 June 2010
http://www.federalregister.gov/OFRUpload...408_PI.pdf
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
Notice: (10-065)
NASA Advisory Council; Ad-Hoc Task Force on Planetary Defense; Meeting.
AGENCY: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
ACTION: Notice of Meeting.
SUMMARY: In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 92-463, as amended, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announces a meeting of the Ad-Hoc Task Force on Planetary Defense of the NASA Advisory Council.
DATES: Thursday, July 8, 2010, 8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., and Friday, July 9, 2010, 8:00 a.m. - 12:45 p.m. (all times are Mountain Daylight Savings Time).
ADDRESS: Millennium Harvest House, 1345 28th Street, Boulder, Colorado 80302 (room will be posted in hotel lobby).
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Jane Parham, Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, National Aeronautics and Space Administration Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546, 202/358-1715; jane.parham@nasa.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The agenda topics for the meeting will include:
• Work plan and timeline
• Report on fact-finding meetings
• Asteroid detection, warning, response, and concepts for deflection
• International coordination on planetary defense against asteroids
The meeting will be open to the public up to the seating capacity of the room. It is imperative that the meeting be held on this date to accommodate the scheduling priorities of the key participants. Visitors will be required to sign a register when they enter the meeting room.
For questions, please call Ms. Jane Parham, at (202) 358-1715.
P. Diane Rausch
Advisory Committee Management Officer
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
June 9, 2010
[FR Doc. 2010-14408 Filed 06/14/2010 at 8:45 am; Publication Date: 06/15/2010]
http://cryptome.org/0001/nasa061510.htm
So I Googled, thus alerting the NSA, the Israelis and the FBI of my intense interest in rocks in space, and here’s what I found. Note that I did not dig too far.
Hollywood, of course, has already weighed in. “Deep Impact was lauded by astronomers as being more scientifically accurate[2], but Armageddon fared better at the box office.[3] They were about equally received by critics…”
It’s an issue previously studied: http://www.planetarydefense.info/
And, of course, it has happened before: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_event
A 1998 presentation entitled “PLANETARY DEFENSE,[B]ASTEROID DEFLECTION & THE FUTURE OF HUMAN INTERVENTION IN THE EARTH'S BIOSPHERE”can be found here:[B]http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/oberg.html[/B][/B]
A 2009 WiredScience article “How to Defend Earth Against an Asteroid Strike” can be found here: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/planetdefense/#ixzz0qtAKcfas
There’s a dedicated blog, of course: http://planetarydefense.blogspot.com/ ,
a society: http://www.planetary.org/programs/projects/mirrorbees/ ,
legal issues, and international laws to be concerned with: http://members.tripod.com/~Ray_Martin/RiskAnal/DefAgAst.html ,
and PowerPoints in purple:
http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/pdf/pres/st...ech-43.pdf
The areas of maximum infrastructure vulnerability following an asteroid impact. Credit: Nick Bailey/University of Southampton.
Oh, and a music video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-e69J8baZQ
We used to have neo-conservatives and neo-liberals to worry about.
Now we also have NEO’s.
"Where is the intersection between the world's deep hunger and your deep gladness?"