Congress Grills NASA on NEO Research

Near Earth Object (NEO), the fear that a sizeable object from space could one day crash into the Earth with catastrophic consequences.

This subject was brought up by lawmakers who are concerned that NASA has been moving funds towards the planned return to the moon.

The lawmakers were warning that this move by NASA could be a disaster.
A planned closing of an observatory in Puerto Rico in 2011 was also discussed.

If you read the comments below the article, one struck me as having merit.

The poster was basicly saying that this phenomena with potential global impact, if not complete destruction, should be funded by EVERY nation and base it on each country's GDP.

I think that sounds fair. If anything, funding for this research could be the responsibility of the UN. (I know that they are not being run properly right now, who knows if it ever will, but for this theory, I am basing it on a properly run and maintained United Nations organization.)

The article says that Japan and European space agencies are ramping up their own NEO projects, 98% of the research still comes from the US through NASA.

NASA pressed to avert catastrophic Deep Impact

NASA penny-pinching risks exposing humankind to a planetary catastrophe if a big enough asteroid evades detection and slams into Earth, US lawmakers warned Thursday.

My thoughts would lean towards a satellite observation shield which would be operating on a 24 hr basis and constantly transmitting this data back to NASA or whoever.

It wouldn't take too long to compile a massive database of the shield's observations and could help to warn us should a NEO situation occur.

I don't know all the science involved though I do think if it is a global killer they fear, then all nations of the earth should provide the funding to try and monitor and potentially avoid this fear.

How would you approach this dilemma?

Instead of putting all our eggs in one basket, I think it would be better for other countries to each have their own NEO programs. One group might see something missed by another and they can confirm each others work.

I agree that funds should not be taken away from NEO. Instead we could end the war in Iraq and with that money be able to fund not only a mission to the Moon, but to anywhere.

Just my .02

Originally posted by Hal9000
Instead of putting all our eggs in one basket, I think it would be better for other countries to each have their own NEO programs.

I agree that there should be more than one country researching this subject, I just think that the funding should be shared by all the nations of the earth.

If everyone chipped in the program would not have to make the choice on whether this area of research was cost effective and subject to cuts in budgeting.

I have to agree that everyone should fund the watch. I mean, it's not like it will only effect one nation and not any other, so some could just take their chances.

But, look at the UN, the last I heard, most of the smaller nations never pay a dime towards funding it, even though they are supposed to. This would be the same way.

But this is a sorely needed project. "One of these days, Alice! One of these days."

While I, like everyone else, agree that funding should not be cut from the NEO searches, I do have one comment to make.

JacKatMtn, you mentioned the closing of "an observatory in Puerto Rico in 2011." No doubt you're talking about the financial ramping down of the Arecibo Radio Observatory. The budget for it was announced over a year ago, it being dwindled down to only about $4M per year. Yes, that would effectively close the observatory for pretty much anything except for maintenance. Really, though, is it a that big of a dilemma if we can no longer use this station for these searches?

No, it is not.

Why?

Well, for starters, it has a very limited line of site due to it being built into a sink-hole in a mountain in the country. It only has view through about a 40 degree cone, centered on the local zenith. That makes it pretty hard to scour most of the sky for NEOs. On top of that, the station is used for many other experiments and observations, from aeronomy to collecting data for SETI. The time allotted for NEO searches is going to be fairly limited.

Another reason is that we have dedicated NEO searches in place already. There are Projects LINEAR and NEAT, which stand for Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research and Near Earth Asteroid Tracking. Unfortunately, about 30% of the sky is left unchecked for NEOs, but not even Arecibo can make a difference in that. Headway is being made in this drought of observations to use existing observatories in Australia, most notably the Parkes Radio Observatory. These established installations have more range in terms of sight, and with advances in the sciences could potentially garner a better resolution of the objects. On top of that, SOHO spacecraft, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, detects a lot of the vagabonds that are out there. The majority of those are long- and no-period comets.

Now, you also said this:

My thoughts would lean towards a satellite observation shield which would be operating on a 24 hr basis and constantly transmitting this data back to NASA or whoever.

While that is a novel idea, it really isn't practical in any way. Yes, this would get above the atmosphere that plagues optical observations, but even with advances in adaptive optics that is becoming less of a concern. Also, radio telescopes are even less hampered by the atmosphere.

The design, construction, and lofting of a satellite network would be very costly. I'm just making up numbers here... Suppose each satellite costs $1.3M, each booster to loft it is $10M, and the annual operational costs for each satellite is $2M. Research and development on the project cost $1.3B. Also, suppose that each satellite has a 10 year operable lifespan. Now, to build and launch a fleet of 24 satellites you just spent $271.2M. Now, the yearly operation for the duration of the mission is $480M. That takes your grand total, from first inception to the end of the mission to $2.05B. That may not seem like much compared to budgets for ways to kill each other, but in terms of NASA's budget, that is astronomical.

On top of that, the satellites pose another risk. What happens when the mission ends? Sure, they could be deorbited, but you still run a risk of something going wrong with that process and it crashing down somewhere unintended, a la Skylab. Aside from that, there really isn't much room out there in space. There are so many satellites out there, along with debris and natural bodies, that putting up this kind of constellation just wouldn't be feasible.

It's so much simpler, easier, and cheaper to maintain the searches from the ground.

EDIT: Simple typos.

[edit on 11/10/2007 by cmdrkeenkid]

reply to post by cmdrkeenkid


It is so great to have you back!

Great analysis on the subject and very easy for this novice to understand.

I was spending money like congress

Bad, very bad.

I was kind of getting the hint that the lawmakers were just lobbying to keep that Puerto Rico observatory open, or at least create awareness of the possible closure to solicit some private funding in a roundabout way.

Thanks for the info.


ed:sp

[edit on 11/10/2007 by JacKatMtn]

Like I said, I was just making up numbers. Those are in no way real or accurate. If anything, it would be a safe bet to say they would be even higher.

And I think Arecibo should stay open. It's the world's largest single aperture radio observatory and still has potential for various uses. As for funding, that will forever be an issue when it comes to anything related to astronomy, or even science in general for that matter.

EDIT: Slight rewording.

[edit on 11/10/2007 by cmdrkeenkid]