Sunday, February 24, 2013

It’s time for a real policy on asteroids

February 24, 2013 by Peter A. Garretson, Kurzweil blog

Excerpts:

  • If you think the events of the post-Valentine’s day surprise of the Russian Meteor and 2012 DA14 near miss are one of a kind, think again.
  • Potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) are the subset of NEAs with the closest orbits to Earth’s orbit...The latest results provide the best count yet of the total PHA population, finding about 4,700 plus or minus 1,500 with diameters larger than 330 feet (about 100 meters)
  • A federal asteroid policy...In August 2009, in an article for The Space Review, I advised that the forthcoming national space policy should establish a lead agency and supported/supporting relationships for the now fully established asteroid/comet hazard....Later in 2010 I spoke to NASA on planetary defense considerations for a human mission to an asteroid, suggesting that this be a primary and not secondary objective for such a mission.I argued in ASPJ that space strategists and policymakers needed to be thinking actively about a future space environment where commercial space industries might have capabilities to mine and exploit asteroids.[ emphasis added]
  • Without a lead agency that perceives itself to have a mandate, and clear policy stating where we desire to go, we leave both our government officials and our private industry disempowered to deal with the dangers and advance the opportunities that near-Earth asteroids present.

Indeed.  Why must asteroids be a hazard?  Why can't they be a resource?  A national policy of planetary defense combined with an eye toward exploiting the resources of asteroids seems like a win-win proposition to me.  One additional proposition could be added:  the resources of asteroids could be employed to colonize space for the betterment of mankind.

Update:

Via Instapundit, a video of the meteor strike in Russia, plus a discussion of a mission to an asteroid:






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