Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Nov 8, 2005 2:11:09 GMT -6
Astronauts Want Asteroid Collision Plan
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Imagine last year‘s tsunami, last month‘s earthquake in Pakistan, and Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma all rolled into one — and then some. If nations can‘t handle those calamities, what‘s going to happen when an asteroid collides with Earth?
Fortunately, experts believe further observations of the asteroid, 99942 Apophis, will almost certainly rule out an impact in 2036. Nevertheless, it‘s precisely that kind of predictable and preventable threat — and the thought of being ill-prepared for it — that alarms the world‘s normally intrepid spacefarers who are calling for action.
Two of the astronauts — Apollo 9‘s Rusty Schweickart and shuttle and space station veteran Ed Lu — have even helped establish a foundation to spotlight the issue.
Schweickart and Lu‘s B612 Foundation — named after the home asteroid of the Earth-visiting prince in Antoine de Saint-Exupery‘s "Le Petit Prince" — is pushing for an orbit-altering demonstration by 2015 on a harmless, way-out-of-the-way asteroid.
The European Space Agency also is proposing a practice mission called Don Quixote to alter an asteroid‘s course, but it‘s yet to be formally approved. NASA‘s Deep Impact spacecraft smashed into a comet for scientific reasons in July; by design, it barely altered the comet‘s path.
"We‘re sitting in a shooting gallery, with hundreds of thousands of these things whizzing around in the inner solar system. So it‘s just a matter of time," said Schweickart, board chairman of the B612 Foundation.
Full story here: www.heraldnewsdaily.com/stories/news-0096032.html
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