ATLAS Meteor Tracking System Gets $5M NASA Funding 104
An anonymous reader writes "After a huge meteor recently exploded over Chelyabinsk (population 1,130,132), Russia, NASA has approved $5 million for funding for ATLAS project (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System). From the article: '"There are excellent ongoing surveys for asteroids that are capable of seeing such a rock with one to two days' warning, but they do not cover the whole sky each night, so there's a good chance that any given rock can slip by them for days to weeks. This one obviously did," astronomer John Tonry of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii told NBC News Friday.'"
NASA didn't just hand over the $5 million (Score:5, Informative)
They applied for a grant in 2011 and it was approved then. This summary implies that NASA has been scrambling this weekend to fund something in the wake of the Russian meteor explosion. The project has been in the works for YEARS.
http://www.fallingstar.com/nasa_funding.php
Re:Getting to 24-48 hr advance warning (Score:5, Informative)
For something like this (where nobody died), you wouldn't attempt an evacuation. I believe that most of the injuries were from broken glass and other falling debris; it would be enough to warn people to either get outside (away from buildings, trees, and other objects that could be blown around by a shock wave) or to stay inside away from windows.
Re:NASA Money? (Score:5, Informative)
Since when does NASA have money?
Maybe they dedicated some cores to bitcoin mining? (I mean, if the congress approval is unreliable, they'd need to find other ways to survive)
Its a shame though. NASA would be beside themselves if they got 10Bil a year. Meanwhile, the US Army spends 20bil a year on air conditioning alone...
A right shame. You would think with all the inventions and innovations that have come out of NASA throughout its history, Americans would be proud of what they have with NASA. Instead they seem to see it as a pointless financial burden.