SCI/TECH: New Bill Passed to Encourage Asteroid Discovery

The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would give out $10,000 in cash awards each year to amateur astronomers who discover near earth objects (NEO) or asteroids that have the potential of crossing earth�s path. Another similar bill under consideration would give $20,000,000 to NASA each year specifically for detecting and tracking NEO. One interesting fact that is easy to overlook is that the first bill only grants money for the years 2004 and 2005, while the second would be for the years 2005 and 2006. Why the short time span. Does the government believe that by the end of 2006 we will find all NEO, or does the government expect an asteroid encounter by 2006?

Space.com
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Amateur astronomers could receive awards of $3,000 for discovering and tracking near-Earth asteroids under legislation approved by the House Wednesday.
"Given the vast number of asteroids and comets that inhabits Earth's neighborhood, greater efforts for tracking and monitoring these objects are critical," said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., sponsor of the legislation that passed 404-1.
One award is to be issued annually to the amateur astronomer or group of amateurs who in the previous year discovered the intrinsically brightest, near-Earth asteroid. Another award would go to the amateur who makes the greatest contribution to the Minor Planet Center's mission of cataloguing near-Earth asteroids.
The bill is named after Pete Conrad, the third man to walk on the moon.

It is understandable that the second bill (George R. Brown Near-Earth Object Survey Act) involves a lot of money ($20million annually), and should be reconsidered every few years, but it is puzzling that Congress would put such a short time frame on such an important problem. Why is the Pete Conrad Bill only valid for 2 years? Congress debating a bill for 10 grand is like the average person debating picking up a penny on the sidewalk. Why would NASA be less interested in finding Near Earth Objects (NEO) after 2006? What is the reason behind the move to give extra funding to NASA and amateur astronomers to find NEO, but only for 2 years?

One possible theory is that someone in Congress has heard one of many theories of future asteroid collisions and chose to pay attention. There are numerous sites on the Internet predicting an asteroid impact specifically in 2006. One of them exodus2006.com predicts 2 collisions in 2006. Other sources such as the Bible predict future impacts as well. Australia�s Learmonth Solar Observatory, which was set up in 2003, is currently running Project Wormwood. This name comes from the before mentioned Bible passage where an asteroid name Wormwood falls into the sea, making a third of the water poison.

The other possibility is that they know it is coming and want someone else to find the incoming asteroid. If they were to admit an approaching problem, everyone�s first question would be �How long have you know this would happen?� It would be very convenient for someone else to find it and field the questions that arise.

The last possibility is that Congress actually cares and is concerned about the future of the planet, or they are spending money to give that appearance. The two year limit on the Pete Conrad Bill makes me doubt this is the case.

Related Articles:
astronomy.com - The Asteroid Threat
Pete Conrad Bill
George R. Brown Near-Earth Survey Act

Related ATS Discussion:
Project Wormwood
whats with the asteroids lately?



[Edited on 9-3-2004 by dbates]

[Edited on 9-3-2004 by Banshee]

What? R U tellin' me there's nothing already in place to determine if there are imposing NEOs, with all the technology, satellites, etc.. at our disposal?

Yes but funding only lets them see very little of the sky. don't you watch movies? Armagedon, Space Cowboys, Independance day, etc. . .

Ok look. They have a radar for oceans, radar for skies, Why cant they use a radar device for space to find and track all those space objects? They have to be able to reflect some sort of signal dont they?

Originally posted by DaRAGE
Ok look. They have a radar for oceans, radar for skies, Why cant they use a radar device for space to find and track all those space objects? They have to be able to reflect some sort of signal dont they?

That's what I was thinking. Not even that high tech. Even a single satellite burping out a repeating beacon signal. Wouldn't even have to be a geo-synchronous system. But then I was thinking, maybe the reflected signal may be too small- that reception of a signal from an object at a considerable distance may be the problem. I dunno.