NASA Can't Pay for Killer Asteroid Hunt

CGISecurity.com writes "NASA officials say the space agency is capable of finding nearly all the asteroids that might pose a devastating hit to Earth, but there isn't enough money to pay for the task so it won't get done. 'We know what to do, we just don't have the money,' said Simon 'Pete' Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center." But hey, it's just the potential end of the world, so nothing much to worry about there.

Lets assume they had the funding

[hsmith]

Does it really matter? If there is a life on earth ending event occurring from some asteroid they COULD find, does it matter at all? There is nothing we can do about it anyway. So tell me, what is the big deal.

NASA vs. UNASA

[bronzey214]

Actually, NASA is already tracking objects >3,300 feet in diameter, but this would be to track all objects capable of doing "massive damage" to Earth.

My question is - why is it the job of the US to protect the world?

Wouldn't this be a UN issue?

I'd Rather Know

[Greyfox]

That way I could greet the end of the world heavily in debt and with an empty wine cellar. No sense in saving up for retirement if a killer asteroid is just going to destroy the world a week after you quit your job and move to the Caribbean.

Re:Lets assume they had the funding

[penguinrenegade]

So instead of doing something valuable like finding killer asteroids [wikipedia.org] that actually exist and have hit the world in the last 100 years, we send a mission to Mars, send up commercial satellites on government paid for shuttles?

Use the money for something useful instead of finding out the effects of sending rats into space. [cnn.com]

Re:About $1 Billion

[gurps_npc]

We have seen Jupiter hit by a killer comet. While not 'destroyed', the damage created a violent weather system that lasted for YEARS over an area many times larger than the planet earth. In addition, we have record that our own planet has undergone massive extinctions that we believe was likely caused by asteroids or commets. So I would say that we have in fact seen a planet sufficiently damaged and have records of others, so the case is made.

The real problem is that what NASA wants to do is pay $1 billion to FIND the asteroid, not to deal with the problem. Preventing it may not be possible, and if it is possible, could cost a lot more than the mere $1 billion.

So, the question is, is it worth x cash to get a smoke detector if the house is locked up tight and we can't get out of it. Or is it better for us to not know, as we can't do anything about it, and just continue on with our lives without worldwide panic.

Re:NASA vs. UNASA

[Anonymous Coward]

FYI, centralized power is the root (and first prerequisite) of most of the evil that has occurred in the history of human civilization. All the "private" criminals in the world combined, with their own acts of injustice, can't even begin to approach the evils committed by organized coercion, i.e. government. Government is clearly the most dangerous force that could ever exist (what could possibly be more dangerous than a special "right" to employ coercion against peaceful human beings), and logically, the more centralized the power (the more power concentrated into the hands of the elite few), the more injustice they are capable of.

The worst possible scenario, as far as death, destruction, and injustice, is one massive world government: the pinnicle of centralized power and (listen carefully) the eventual goal of the UN. They have already started the process of acquiring military and economic power of their own, and if you believe this won't result in death, destruction, and injustice, then you haven't been paying attention to history.

He has an implied point

[Quiet_Desperation]

But hey, it's just the potential end of the world, so nothing much to worry about there.

So maybe the rest of the world can chip in?

I'm not into Astro...

[NRISecretAgent]

but I know a few people who do who say that we could solve the problem of a giant asteroid if we had enough warning. We know blasting it into little chunks wouldn't do much but we could actually shift it's trajectory by using just a shuttle. The shuttle would go up alongside the Asteroid to one side or another (90 degrees off the collision course) and just sit there, keeping as little distance as possible without crashing into it. By doing this, the gravity between the shuttle and the asteroid would cause a shift in the trajectory of each. As long as we keep moving the shuttle a little at a time so the don't actually collide, over the course of a decade or two it would shift enough to miss Earth. And we are capable of seeing well into the future. We already know that there is an Asteroid that could possibly hit us in (I believe) 29 years. It may not have been tried but as physics stands, there are things we can do. It's based in simple Physics and could work. We aren't totally helpless until we throw out information, either of physics or... well... physics I guess =).