NASA Offers Bounty For Improved Asteroid Detection Algorithms 38
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Dara Kerr reports at CNET that NASA is launching an 'Asteroid Data Hunter' contest to inspire the creation of algorithms that identify asteroids in images captured by ground-based telescopes. ... The winning solution must increase the detection sensitivity, minimize the number of false positives, ignore imperfections in the data, and run effectively on all computer systems. 'Current asteroid detection initiatives are only tracking one percent of the estimated objects that orbit the Sun,' says Chris Lewicki. 'We are excited to partner with NASA in this contest to help increase the quantity and knowledge about asteroids that are potential threats, human destinations, or resource rich.' NASA's goal is to discover those unknown asteroids and then track and characterize them. For the contest, citizen scientists will be allowed to study images taken from ground-based telescopes to see if they can develop improved algorithms for identifying asteroids. If dangerous asteroids are found, NASA could determine if they'd be viable for a re-direction into a lunar orbit. 'For the past three years, NASA has been learning and advancing the ability to leverage distributed algorithm and coding skills through the NASA Tournament Lab to solve tough problems,' said Jason Crusan, NASA Tournament Lab director. 'We are now applying our experience with algorithm contests to helping protect the planet from asteroid threats through image analysis.'"
$35,000 split x ways? (Score:2, Insightful)
> NASA will give away $35,000 in awards to competition winners
Big spenders! This really motivates me to get started.
Re:$35,000 split x ways? (Score:5, Funny)
I think they're spending too much. Everyone knows this is just another trumped up threat by scientists to get government to pay for scientists' extravagant lifestyles. But asteroids are by no means settled science. Just because 99% of astronomers agree that a large asteroid hitting the earth would result in devastating consequences for the human race, I know this chemist who saw an asteroid enter the earth's atmosphere and burn up harmlessly. Why, just the other day, I saw one shoot across the sky harmlessly.
And don't try to tell me the dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid. Everyone knows that volcanoes kill more dinosaurs every year than all the asteroids combined.
These asteroid alarmists need to get a life and calm down.
Am I the only one... ? (Score:4, Insightful)
... Who thinks this whole article is written like a freaking marketing PR announcement?
I mean: "We are excited to partner with NASA" [...] "NASA has been learning and advancing the ability to leverage distributed algorithm and coding skills" [...] etc.
Don't misunderstand me: the idea is great and, if they can detect more asteroids, faster, and with a better precision, we will all be better off in the long term. But I am just tired of these shockingly stupid buzzwords ("excited", "advancing", "leveraging", "coding skills", yadda, yadda, yadda).
And get off my lawn!
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And get off my lawn!
Vacate my grass-encoated outer-building frontage!
Stop crowdsourcing work for free (Score:2, Interesting)
Find intelligent people and HIRE THEM to come up with algorithms.
Re:Stop crowdsourcing work for free (Score:5, Insightful)
I think they have intelligent people. What they're looking for is some outside perspective.
When you've been staring at your own solution for years and years, it's good to have someone make you question it once in a while. They will no doubt get plenty of rookie and novice suggestions, the easy stuff they've long ago solved. They may even get some of the suggestions that took them a long time to understand and develop. What they're hoping for is something completely different. Maybe some grad student working on a new form of video compression will spot similarities that can be applied. Who knows?
Additional superbounty : $ 10 million (Score:1)
* Launch a nuclear tipped rocket to disintegrate or deflect the asteroid
IF not ,
* Check if there are any valuable minerals on the asteroid .
* Mine and launch the vehicle back to earth
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Using a legitimately dangerous asteroid will increase the motivation factor and throw budget restrictions out the window. Then we would see whether what we are truly capable of when it comes to technology development.
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There's a big difference between slightly changing an orbit so it does not kill us all, and performing a Lunar entry burn for shits and giggles. The asteroid that detonated over Russia last year was around 12Gg, with a velocity of roughly 19km/s. The detonation as only about half a MT, so even a direct impact would not have been that bad outside the local region. It's a long way off from cataclysmic.
So let's intercept this thing and slow it down to Lunar orbit. Assuming a good chemical rocket at 450s...
Before or after? (Score:5, Funny)
Does the algorithm need to detect asteroids before or after they impact the earth?
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Why am I imagining this as your answer?
if(AstroidBoundingSphere.Intersects(EarthBoundingSphere)) LaunchCounterMeasures();
so many haters...on the humanity (Score:3)
think about it, this is possibly one of the most important things that we as a society can do...protect our selves from the large number of inevitable asteroid strikes which will wipe out millions of people instantly.
now it's being crowdsourced to the world, as it should be, and people bitch and moan. go save the world if you're the type and don't bitch about $35K not being enough to motivate you to save the world if you're a selfish jackass.
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Posting as AC huh? Well, I am paid to do science. And I find this challenge pretty exciting. I might work it in my free time. I might pair up with a few other scientists who are interested in doing the same. Or if I really want to work this full time, I might write up a grant so I do get "paid". I don't really care about the $35K. And it's not pay. It's just incentive. Like a reward.
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For reference, here's one of the current systems (Score:5, Informative)
If you're interested in the current state of the art, read this article from the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (April 2013). It describes the hardware and software used by the Pan-STARRS team to detect asteroids automatically in data taken with their 1.8-meter telescope on Hawaii and its 1.4-gigapixel CCD camera.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1302.7281 [arxiv.org]
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Lunar orbit? (Score:2)
Why move a dangerous asteroid into lunar orbit? That's a little too close to home should something go wrong.
If they want to study it, just send a probe to bring back pieces of it.
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Would not want that responsibility, thank you (Score:2)
Anyway... probably want to spend some time with your loved ones today. I'm going to go empty a liquor store myself.