A nonprofit group is looking to give Earth early warning before dangerous asteroids from outer space come near the atmosphere.
The B612 Foundation, a nonprofit group dedicated to protecting Earth from Asteroid strikes, is looking to step up the monitoring of potentially deadly asteroids from the cosmos that could pose a threat to Earth with the funding of a $450 million effort to send a powerful telescope into space for the purpose of searching for such asteroids.
The group is looking to help avoid near-disasters such as in February in Chelyabinsk, Russia, when a meteor fell out of the sky towards the city and resulted in more than 1,000 people being injured as a result. The meteor was clocked at a speed of 19 miles per second and the energy it released when it entered the atmosphere was equal to a few kilotonnes, or a small atomic weapon explosion, according to Russia's Academy of Sciences.
In response, the nonprofit is looking to finance a powerful infrared telescope known as the Sentinel Space Telescope, which is designed to search for asteroids and map out their course. With a planned launch for 2017-18 in the works, the telescope is planned to be positioned to mirror the orbit of Venus, according to the Hattjesburg American. That would, according to the group, vastly improve the efficiency of the telescope's ability to discover asteroids during its planned 6.5 year mission.
The telescope would embark on a mission to "discover and catalog 90 percent of the asteroids" around Earth's region that exceed 140 meters in size, according to the group's statement on the mission. In addition the mission aims to discover a "significant number" of smaller asteroids around 30 meters.
"The B612 Sentinel mission extends the emerging commercial spaceflight industry into deep space - a first that will pave the way for many other ventures. Mapping the presence of 1000′s of near earth objects will create a new scientific database and greatly enhance our stewardship of the planet," said Dr. Scott Hubbard, architect of the foundation.
Earlier this year, NASA announced the Asteroid Grand Challenge, a program aimed at bringing together private businesses, amateur astronomers, space agencies and universities around the world with the goal of reducing the threat of asteroid impacts.
"This is one of the only natural disasters that we have the ability to solve. We have the ability to prove that we are smarter than the dinosaurs," Jason Kessler of NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist told the Hattiesburg American.
"This is a marrying of the two. We can prove that we are smarter than the dinosaurs, and take our fate into our own hands," Kessler said. "They (the dinosaurs) didn't have the technology to defend themselves from planetary threats of this nature."