Many folks would like to see us back on the Moon and developing its resources.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

The Threat Of IMPACT - A Special Report on NEOs.

If you are a member of the National Space Society you probably just got the latest issue of adAstra -
The Magazine Of The National Space Society.
The cover has the above title on it and several articles about NEOs.
Here is the link to the table of contents even though the article is not linked.
http://www.nss.org/adastra/volume20/v20n4.html

Since we have recently been buzzed by nearby passing asteroids I took time to read the articles.

There is an upcoming conference in Spain in April on Planetary Defense which goes along with previous questions about how would you go about getting to these NEOs, both for defense or possibly for commercial interests.
- LRK -

---------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.congrex.nl/09c04/
1st IAA Planetary Defense Conference:
Protecting Earth from Asteroids
27 - 30 April 2009
Granada, Spain

The International Academy of Astronautics will hold its first conference on protecting our planet from impacts by asteroids and comets the week of April 27, 2009 in Granada, Spain. The 1st IAA Planetary Defense Conference: Protecting Earth from Asteroids, co-sponsored by the European Space Agency and The Aerospace Corporation, is the follow-on to two previous planetary defense conferences held in 2004 in Los Angeles and 2007 in Washington, D.C. Details on the 2004 and 2007 conferences are at www.planetarydefense.info
snip
---------------------------------------------------------------

Sometimes in our looking up for incoming hazards we fail to look at what we are doing right at our feet.
We live here and throw our trash away and we are thinking of going to space where we throw more trash away.
Today in my email was a notice of the latest TED Talks postings and one of the videos is by Charles Moore and his sailing the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks

If you have the bandwidth you might like to listen to the talk.
One of those commenting on the talk said he is not the most engaging speaker and a video of some students sailing with him might be more informative.
The language used is a bit more explicative and the ads on the side bars a bit racy, but you might be startled at the amount of plastic floating around on our high seas and making it to our beaches.
- LRK -

----------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/capt_charles_moore_on_the_seas_of_plastic.html
Capt. Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation first discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch --
an endless floating waste of plastic trash. Now he's drawing attention to the growing, choking problem of plastic debris in our seas.
snip

Stephen Jersak – March 4 2009
snip
VBS.tv did a splendid documentary, titled Toxic Garbage Island, not too long ago on this phenomenon. Unfortunately,
Charles Moore is not the most engaging speaker. The kids at Vice however, are able to present a thoroughly crushing
picture from the centre of the garbage patch.It's available online at
http://www.vbs.tv/shows.php?show=1154
snip
----------------------------------------------------------------

I hope we take into consideration the making of our technology from birth to death.
Many a city in the past has been built upon the garbage dumps of earlier inhabitants
and I see business buildings rising up from the landfill in Silicon Valley today.

Listen to a concert in the park and burn your behind on methane gas escaping from the clay cap.
http://www.mv-voice.com/news/show_story.php?id=884

Play a game of gulf on the local landfill gulf course.
http://www.brownfieldgolf.com/history.htm
http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php?action=printpage;topic=35540.0

Put your next business in the building rising up from the latest landfill.
http://sanfranciscobay.sierraclub.org/yodeler/html/2008/05/feature6.htm

Light your baseball park lights from the energy made from steam turbines fueled by landfill methane captured gas.
http://www.sanjoseca.gov/clerk/agenda/2_19_02docs/7.2.htm

Start thinking about how you are going to use the local resources and the expendables you brought with you.
It would be nice if manufactures considered the life of their products from birth to death.
- LRK -

If you have read the Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars, series by Kim Stanley Robinson, you will recognize why we may go to Mars and what happens when the resources on Earth have been used up and the habitable places reduced by pollution. Sounds like a lot of the politics of today.
- LRK -

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
==============================================================
http://www.congrex.nl/09c04/
1st IAA Planetary Defense Conference:
Protecting Earth from Asteroids
27 - 30 April 2009
Granada, Spain

The International Academy of Astronautics will hold its first conference on protecting our planet from impacts by asteroids and comets the week of April 27, 2009 in Granada, Spain. The 1st IAA Planetary Defense Conference: Protecting Earth from Asteroids, co-sponsored by the European Space Agency and The Aerospace Corporation, is the follow-on to two previous planetary defense conferences held in 2004 in Los Angeles and 2007 in Washington, D.C. Details on the 2004 and 2007 conferences are at www.planetarydefense.info

The 2009 conference will bring together worldwide experts to discuss:

* Detecting and tracking asteroids and comets that might be
hazardous to our planet,
* Characteristics of these objects,
* Deflecting a threatening object should one be detected,
* The nature of impact disasters, and
* Political, legal and policy issues that must be considered as part
of an overall mitigation strategy.

At present, there are over 900 asteroids and comets that are designated Potentially Hazardous Objects (PHOs), objects larger than about 140 meters that could eventually threaten Earth. Ground-based observations are currently increasing this number by more than 80 per year. Experts believe that the total population of PHOs could number 4000 or more.

A particular focus of the conference will be Apophis, a 270-meter asteroid discovered in 2004 that is predicted to pass very close to Earth, below the altitude of our geosynchronous satellites, in April 2029 and has a current probability of impacting our planet in 2036 of 1 in 45000. The most recent significant impact occurred in Siberia, Russia, in 1908 when an object estimated to be between 30 and 50 meters in diameter entered the atmosphere and exploded. The blast leveled over 2000 square kilometers of forest—an area larger than Washington, D.C.
snip
==============================================================
http://www.universetoday.com/2009/03/02/asteroid-2009-dd45-just-buzzed-by-earth/
Asteroid 2009 DD45 Just Buzzed by Earth
As I'm writing this (13:40 UT) a newly-discovered asteroid, 2009 DD45, is flying past Earth at only 74,800 km (46,478.5 miles or 0.000482 AU) away. That's only about twice the height of a typical geostationary communications satellite, and well inside the moon's orbit. According to Spaceweather.com, the 30- to 40-meter wide space rock is similar in size to the Tunguska impactor of 1908, but this time there is no danger of a collision. At closest approach on March 2nd, (which just occurred) 2009 DD45 will speed through the constellation Virgo shining as brightly as an 11th magnitude star. So if you're in the Pacific region like Hawaii or Tahiti, go out and take a look! But this rock is moving fairly fast, and by tonight, it will only be 13th magnitude, and fading fast.

UPDATE: Below see video of 2009 DD45 as seen from Australia:
(thanks to Aaron Slack <http://www.caffeinatedastronomy.com/> for the heads up on the video)
http://www.caffeinatedastronomy.com/
[The video on his web site is a larger format than the one copied on UniverseToday. - LRK -]
snip
==============================================================
http://planetary.org/news/2009/0302_Space_Rock_Swoops_by_Earth.html
Planetary News: Near Earth Objects (2009)
Space Rock Swoops by Earth
March 2, 2009
A Near Earth Object designated 2009 DD45 buzzed the Earth early this morning (Pacific Time), passing within 70,000 kilometers (40,000 miles) of the Earth's surface. To give an idea of just how close a shave this was, consider this: 70,000 kilometers is just one fifth of the distance from the Earth to the moon, and only twice the distance at which geostationary telecommunications satellites orbit.
The space rock was discovered only two days ago by Rob McNaught at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, when it was a dim speck about 1.5 million kilometers away. It became brightest when it passed closest to Earth at 13:44 Universal Time, which is 5:44am Pacific Time, and has been getting dimmer ever since. At the point of closest approach 2009 DD45 was over the Pacific Ocean near Tahiti, which means it could be observed from Australia, Japan, and China, but not from North America or Europe.
==============================================================
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/
NEO Earth Close Approaches
*Close-Approach Tables* <http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/neo_ca>

Custom tables (*updated daily*) showing future and past NEO close-approach data, including uncertainties, are available at the link above <http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/neo_ca>. More information about the uncertainties used in these tables is available <http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/neo_ca_info.html>.

Also, a list of historic comet close approaches prior to 2006 is available here <http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/ca/historic_comets.html>.

snip
==============================================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

==============================================================

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Moon and Mars - Videos

Loading...
Loading...