Wed, Jan 21, 2004
Defending Earth from Asteroids and Comets
While a scary thought
to many of us, the space industry has been working on a plan to
deal with the possibility of an asteroid impact on Earth. While one
would think this subject is tailored more for the Hollywood movie
industry, some scientists -- many of whom are meeting next month to
discuss the issue -- insist the threat is real.
"The fact that a devastating asteroid impact with Earth is a low
probability event, it is not zero, it has happened before. If we do
not prevent such an occurrence when we have the capability to do
so, it would be the greatest crime in human history." Rusty
Schweickart, Director, B612 Foundation, former NASA astronaut
Developing strategies
for mitigating threats from asteroids and preparing for
catastrophic events will be discussed when an international group
of scientists, engineers, space policy makers, and others gather in
Garden Grove, (CA)., Feb. 23-26 for the Planetary Defense
Conference 2004 (PDC). Participants will develop a set of
recommendations for improving the ability to successfully defend
our planet from possible impact threats. This is the first in a
series of conferences devoted to defending Earth from
asteroids.
William Ailor, Aerospace Corporation, PDC General Chair states,
"At this point, we may find we have few or no options for dealing
effectively with an incoming asteroid. One objective of the
conference will be to develop recommendations for hardware and
policy directions which will give us more options in the
future."
The conference's presenters will include:
- Russell Schweickart, B612 Foundation
- Ed Lu, NASA, Johnson Space Center
- Brig, Gen. Simon P. Warden, U.S. Air Force, Los Angles, CA
- The Honorable Lembit Opik, Member of Parliament, United
Kingdom
- John Logson, George Washington University
- Dr. Andrea Carusi, Pisa, Italy
- Dennis Byrnes, NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, U.S. House of Reps., Orange Cty.,
CA
- Williams Burrows, noted author, New York University
- Larry Niven, noted author, Chatsworth, CA
The Planetary Defense Conference is co-sponsored by The American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and The Aerospace
Corporation.
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