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National Optical Astronomy Observatory 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 4, 2003
RELEASE NO: NOAO 03-03

NASA Should Lead More Focused Program to 
 Reduce Threat from Hazardous Asteroids
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For More Information:

Douglas Isbell
Public Information Officer
National Optical Astronomy Observatory
Phone: 520/318-8214
E-mail: disbell{at}noao.edu

NASA should be assigned to lead a new research program to better 
determine the population and physical diversity of near-Earth objects 
that may collide with our planet, down to a size of 200 meters, 
according to the final report of a workshop on the scientific 
requirements for the mitigation of hazardous comets and asteroids.

The workshop's report also recommends that the U.S. Department of 
Defense (DoD) work to more rapidly communicate surveillance data on 
natural airbursts of smaller rocky bodies, and it concludes that 
governmental policy makers must "formulate a chain of responsibility" 
to be better prepared in the event that a threat to Earth becomes 
known.

"As our discussions proceeded, it became clear that the prime 
impediment to further advances in this field is the lack of assigned 
responsibility to any national or international governmental 
organization," said planetary scientist Michael Belton, organizer of 
the September 2002 workshop. "Since it is part of NASA's newly stated 
mission to `understand and protect our home planet,' it seems obvious 
that this responsibility should reside in NASA."

Belton presented the findings of the workshop today in Washington, DC, 
to officials at NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the Office 
of Management and Budget, and the report was delivered to the U.S. 
Congress.

About 2,225 near-Earth objects (NEOs) have been detected, primarily by
ground-based optical searches, in the size range between 10 meters and 
30 kilometers, out of a total estimated population of about one 
million; some information about the physical size and composition of 
these NEOs is available for only 300 objects.

The total number of objects a kilometer in diameter or larger, a size 
that could cause global catastrophe upon Earth impact, is now 
estimated to range between 900 and 1,230. The NASA-led Spaceguard 
Survey has a congressional mandate to detect 90% of these 
kilometer-sized objects by 2008, and it is making "excellent progress" 
on this goal, the report says.

However, a full survey of objects that could cause significant damage 
on Earth should reach down to NEOs at least as small as 200 meters, 
the report says, which should be within the capability of proposed 
ground-based facilities such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope 
and the PanStarrs telescope system. Ground-based radar systems will 
remain a "critical contributor" to obtaining the most accurate 
possible data on the orbits of many hazardous objects, the report 
says.

The workshop report discusses a preliminary roadmap based on five 
themes:  more complete and accurate surveys of the orbits of 
potentially hazardous objects; improved public education about the 
risk; characterizing the physical properties of a range of asteroids 
and comets; more extensive laboratory research; and initial physical 
experiments toward a realistic plan to intercept and divert a future 
incoming object.

In order to keep maximum annual expenses on the order of a typical
spacecraft mission (approximately $300 million), the report estimates 
that it would take about 25 years to accomplish this roadmap.

The Final Report of the NASA Workshop on Scientific Requirements for
Mitigation of Hazardous Comets and Asteroids, held in Arlington, VA, 
from September 3-6, 2002, is available on the Internet at:

http://www.noao.edu/meetings/mitigation/report.html

The workshop was attended by 77 scientists from the United States, 
Europe and Japan. It was co-sponsored by Ball Aerospace, Science 
Applications International Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp., the National 
Optical Astronomy Observatory and the University of Maryland.

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http://www.noao.edu/outreach/press/pr03/pr0303.html

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