Alpha Centauri 2

Community => Recreation Commons => Destination: Alpha Centauri => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on October 28, 2013, 04:59:29 pm

Title: U.N. to create asteroid defense group
Post by: Buster's Uncle on October 28, 2013, 04:59:29 pm

U.N. to create asteroid defense group
By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff 11:05 a.m. EDT October 28, 2013


(http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/b3b24d77c97375470da8fe4f049e6c1fc39ce5f1/c=162-63-1320-936&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/USATODAY/test/2013/10/28/1382972572000-Asteroid-simulation-001.jpg)
An asteroid defense plan will be drawn up by former astronauts
Member nations to join forces in an "International Asteroid Warning Group"
A spacecraft would be launched to knock the asteroid off course (Photo: AP)



(Newser) – The next time an asteroid is on a collision course with Earth, the U.N. wants to make sure someone calls Bruce Willis.

The General Assembly last week gave the green light to an asteroid defense plan drawn up by the former astronauts at the Association of Space Explorers, Scientific American reports. The plan calls for member nations to join forces in an "International Asteroid Warning Group" committed to sounding the alarm if a dangerous rock is spotted. A spacecraft would then be launched to knock the asteroid off course.

The ASE also wants the U.N. to run a practice deflection mission, to make sure the method actually works.

Right now, no nation has an explicit responsibility to defend against an asteroid, and one former astronaut explained why the task should fall to the U.N., reports Space.com: "If something goes wrong in the middle of the deflection, you have now caused havoc in some other nation that was not at risk. And, therefore, this decision of what to do, how to do it, and what systems to use have to be coordinated internationally."

Further, early detection is essential, because the deflecting spacecraft will likely have to hit the rock five years before its rendezvous with Earth in order to be successful. "If we don't find it until a year out, make yourself a nice cocktail and go out and watch," one former astronaut says. (There's actually a small chance a big asteroid could hit us in 2032.)


http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/10/28/asteroid-defense-united-nations/3286133/ (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/10/28/asteroid-defense-united-nations/3286133/)

Title: Re: U.N. to create asteroid defense group
Post by: Buster's Uncle on October 29, 2013, 10:41:56 pm

UN's new asteroid-monitoring group will defend Earth from killer space rocks
By Rich McCormick on October 29, 2013 06:10 am


(http://cdn3.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/9195167/asteroid_large_verge_medium_landscape.jpg)



The United Nations is planning to set up an International Asteroid Warning Group that'll inform its member nations when asteroids are on collision course with Earth. When a dangerous rock is discovered, the UN's existing Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space will launch a mission to slam the asteroid off its trajectory.

Such a group was originally called for by the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) in 2008, but Scientific American reports that the impact of the Chelyabinsk meteor earlier this year likely influenced the UN General Assembly's decision to adopt the ASE's guidelines. The meteor that struck the Russian city didn't claim any fatalities, but did cause thousands of injuries. None of the world's space agencies anticipated the meteor's collision: notice of its fall came from dash-cam and mobile-phone footage taken by citizens near the blast zone.

Speaking at a New York event after the UN General Assembly's announcement of its plans, ex-astronaut Ed Lu said "There are about 1 million asteroids large enough to destroy New York City or larger. Our challenge is to find these asteroids first before they find us." Lu's own nonprofit B612 Foundation was set up to deal with the problem of asteroid impacts, and aims to launch a privately funded telescope called Sentinel in 2017 that'll detect asteroids in the vicinity of Earth.

NASA already knows Earth is currently in the path of at least 1,400 asteroids, but the space agency says we're likely to be safe from their impact for this century. That hasn't stopped several close calls as space rocks whizz past our planet, including one recent near-miss the size of the Golden Gate Bridge. To continue on without an organization such as the UN's Asteroid Warning Group is, in Ed Lu's eyes, "stupidity."


http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/29/5040716/un-international-asteroid-warning-group-set-up (http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/29/5040716/un-international-asteroid-warning-group-set-up)