Asteroid Apocalypse Prevention Finally Gets Some Funding

With all the space rockszippingby Earth these days , we ’re jolly much cruising for an interplanetary bruising . But NASA ’s line on the situation is , to paraphrase executive Mike Griffin : “ Forget about that whole thing ; we ’re proceed back to the Moon ! Yay ! ” Fortunately , theB612 Foundationis slightly more serious about making indisputable our civilization is n’t snuffed out by an asteroid or comet . channelise by former spaceman Rusty Schweickart , the non - profit is kick $ 50,000 to a radical of experts at Jet Propulsion Labs to take the “ gravitational force tractor ” method acting of deflect Day of Judgement aim that are inbound for momma Earth .

https://gizmodo.com/10-scariest-asteroid-attacks-on-earth-the-near-hits-an-5018346

While Griff and his Bush Administration crony dust off their standoff - dyestuff shirts , smoke a bowling ball and attempt to live over NASA ’s Apollo golden years with their mission back to the Moon , it ’s well to know someone ’s paying attention to the Asteroid threat .

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Of the many different method acting propose for altering blank tilt ’ course — or fellate them up — gravity tractoring seems to be the most attractive . By launching a satellite towards a Near - Earth Asteroid ( NEA ) and hanging out nigh by , the fomite ’s gravitational influence will slowly , and ever so slenderly alter the asteroid ’s course . The process requires a deal of advaned notice , but should work without the use of optical maser , atomic weapon system , or Bruce Willis .

From B612’smission statement :

The reality of care to us , among others , is that the discovery of a NEA headed toward an impact with Earth could be announced at any metre by the Spaceguard program . If this were to materialize the public would be extremely concerned and necessitate to be intimate what is being done about it .

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regrettably the result is “ nothing ” . This , it seems to us , is unbearable and could cause widespread consternation . For this reason the B612 Foundation , make out that national governments finger ( to the extent that they have considered the affair ) that they are not in a view to spend public money on mitigation , are taking the enterprisingness now to lead off this mental process with the use of private funds . We believe that there are adequate figure of well-informed and concerned people to support the critical initial planning workplace that needs to be done to finally contact an operable organization to forefend incoming NEAs .

Our strong belief is that there is nothing more powerful to win over the public that this audacious challenge can be met than to in reality do it . Our destination is to physically deflect a representative asteroid as a demonstration that a long term , more challenging operational system can become a reality .

Now of course it ’s a possibility that B612 could take a John Rock that ’s not an impending threat to Earth and make it one by altering its course , but that ’s pretty unlikely . More important is that someone is serious about saving humanity from a space rock strike , but they ’re seriously underfunded — $ 50,000 is a drop curtain in the bucketful , and we ’re going to need an X - Prize style contest , or some mega - rich asteroid eccentric to pony up some bucks if we ’re ever going to dodge the big one .

Lesdilley