What Progress Is Being Made In The Study Of NEOs Or Near Earth Objects?
We sure know a lot more than we did about Near Earth Objects than we ever have in the past. In many regards we find that they are much more dangerous than we had ever believed to life on Earth and our Earth's biosphere.
And what we have learned is truly incredible, as we have found the building blocks of life in comet dust, and debris from asteroids. It appears that some of the asteroids have come from other planets, broken up comets, and perhaps pieces of debris from outside of our solar system.
In other words, not all near Earth objects or asteroids are created equally - they have different makeup, consistency, orbits, and origins. They are different sizes, shapes, and many spin at different speeds. No two comets have the same trajectory, unless they are binary comets, or binary asteroids. Today we have a much better sense of the perceived number of NEOs, thanks to better use of telescopes. Our think tank recently discussed the need to increase funding for a better census of NEOs to $100 million per year.
We need to catalog each one of these NEOs by size, shape, consistency, trajectory, and basically open a case file on every single one that we can find. We have the computers to do it, we have the technology, and it's just a matter of putting the right funding out there so we can get this done. We don't need to be blindsided by a rogue large asteroid or comet headed straight for Earth.
As long as we know they are headed for us, or if we are pretty sure they are on an exact collision course, we should have time to do something about it. In other words, we need more information to make sure that we have our proper planetary defense system ready for action. There is really no difference philosophically behind having a missile defense system for our nation's borders, or a planetary defense system for Earth.
Whereas, the enemies might be different, it amounts to the same problem if you can't stop the onslaught. Destruction of your civilization, only in the case of an NEO it's much worse, because all us humans regardless of religion, nationality, race, or culture are all in this together. That means we sink or swim together also when it comes to a major asteroid or comet strike. So yes, act accordingly - therefore, our think tank which operates online, says this is pretty serious.
Luckily, NASA is taking the bull by the horns, and they have put into their budget a manned mission to an asteroid. The Planetary Defense information that is now being learned will help us for when we will have to take out one of these space rocks. We will be sending more robotic precursory missions to asteroids and we are learning our engineering limitations. Right now, there are some 40 asteroids that make potentially acceptable targets for us to land on.
So NASA is determining how to select the right asteroid to actually land on and that means in the future it will be done. We will land humans on asteroid and bring them home again safely. What we learn may help one day save mankind from extinction. Please consider all this.
References:
1. VIDEO Discussion - "Exploration Precursor Robotic Missions (xPRM) Study Teams Update" by J. Jenkins; Aug. 2010 - NASA NEO Conference; Exploration of NEOs - hosted in Washington DC. 2. Ditto Above; "Innovative Concepts for NEO Exploration" by B. Wilcox. 3. Ditto Above; "Using the Moon to Facilitate Exploration of NEOs" by C. Neal 4. Ditto Above; "International Framework for Human Space Exploration" by K. Laurini. 5. Ditto Above; "Hayabusa Mission Update" by H. Kuninaka.
About The Author:Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes it's hard work to write 21,300 articles; http://www.bloggingcontent.net/
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