NASA
Non-Profit’s Private Space Telescope to Hunt Dangerous Asteroids in 2017
With the dangers of rogue asteroids made clear by the surprise explosion of a meteor over Russia in February, a non-profit organization is ramping up its effort to search for potentially hazardous space rocks near Earth. The B612 Foundation was started in 2002 by former NASA...
15 April, 2013
Better Asteroid Detection Is Needed, Experts Say
Making a case for the need to detect asteroids before they hit Earth, a former astronaut said Wednesday that the number of casualties would have been enormous had the space rock that exploded in Russia last month blown apart directly over New York City instead. “We’d...
27 March, 2013
Dr. Ed Lu’s Congressional Testimony
On March 21, 2013, Dr. Ed Lu spoke at a Senate subcommittee (U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation) hearing convened to discuss space-borne threats to human civilization....
21 March, 2013
Deflecting Killer Asteroid Could Be Geopolitical Nightmare
Humanity has the technical know-how to deflect a killer asteroid away from Earth, but whether the world can come together to pull it off in time is another matter. A looming asteroid strike would be a global problem demanding a complex and coordinated response, experts say....
15 March, 2013
Former astronaut Ed Lu on NASA and saving Earth from asteroids
Ed Lu Ph.D. 89 is a former NASA astronaut more recently known for his work as CEO of the B612 Foundation, which aims to “hunt asteroids that could hit the Earth and potentially cause human devastation.” Lu sat down with The Daily to discuss his...
10 March, 2013
Can Humans Do Better Than Dinosaurs When it Comes to Incoming Space Objects?
Can humans do better than the dinosaurs? This is one of a string of questions I posed in a Skype chat on Sunday with Russell L. Schweickart, the Apollo 9 astronaut who has become a leading proponent of investing in tools that can spot and deflect...
22 February, 2013
Detecting asteroids, meteors takes on new urgency
Earth may have survived its close encounters with an asteroid and a meteor Friday, but the episodes focused new attention on gaps in astronomers' ability to identify smaller space rocks like these capable of inflicting widespread destruction. Efforts to better identify those threats are underway, including...
20 February, 2013
Vindication for Entrepreneurs Watching Sky: Yes it Can Fall
A group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who helped build thriving companies have put millions of dollars into the effort of asteroid defense and Ed Lu’s B612 Foundation is one. "Wouldn’t it be silly if we got wiped out because we weren’t looking?” said Edward Lu, a...
17 February, 2013
Russia meteor virtually impossible to see coming
[caption id="attachment_23849" align="alignnone" width="860"] REUTERS/Copyright 2013 EUMETSAT/Handout[/caption] Scientists have begun piecing together the characteristics of the meteor that exploded over Russia on the morning of February 15, using data from seismic instruments that track earthquakes and microphones designed to detect sonic booms from nuclear explosions. Unlike...
17 February, 2013