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Famous Last Words
Are we too cheap to stop asteroid strikes? You decide:
Scott Pace, head of program analysis and evaluation at NASA, said the agency could not do more to detect NEOs "given the constrained resources and the strategic objectives NASA already has been tasked with."
If there is a one in 26 million chance that an asteroid strike will kill everyone in the world, that's an expectation of 230 deaths per year. That's within a stone's throw of the average number of deaths from terrorist attacks on US soil in the last ten years. It's interesting to watch the difference between overreacting to terrorism and underreacting to understood harms such as auto accidents.
Not that I think war in Iraq was a bad idea, just that 'War on Terror' is an inapt name. The operation name 'Iraqi Freedom' was more apt.
Posted by Sam Dinkin at November 10, 2007 04:38 PM
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Comments
Maybe Pete Worden will be the next NASA administrator after Griffin leaves and we'll finally get someone who will take this issue seriously.
And hopefully kill the Stick too.
Posted by canttellya at November 10, 2007 04:49 PM
As someone who experienced 'sniper panic' in Montgomery County, MD, I have a lot of debate experience with people about real dangers vs. perceived dangers. I'm not sure what the answer is, though Pete Worden as NASA Admin may be part of it.
Posted by Tom at November 10, 2007 07:10 PM
It's often the case that people who criticize the government for spending on something frivolous, do so for the purpose of pushing something equally frivolous or even moreso.
Want to spend less on nation building in Iraq?
Fine by me.
Want to spend more on a 26 million to one shot?
Get back to me in 50 years when the price to orbit is way cheaper.
Posted by K at November 11, 2007 12:45 AM
In 50 years? You mean 20 years after Apophis wipes us out? (Or not - but isn't the probability of the April 2036 strike still about 1 in 45,000?)
Posted by Botec at November 11, 2007 05:33 AM
We need a "War On Asteroids". Or find a way to democratize them.
Posted by lmg at November 11, 2007 06:06 AM
Speaking of asteroid Apophis, the Planetary Society has a prize for designing a probe or tool for more accurately determining the path of an asteroid. The prize deadline ended in August, but they'll award it in December. I hadn't heard about this prize till I googled around today.
Posted by Karl Hallowell at November 11, 2007 08:12 AM
Img: !
Posted by Sam Dinkin at November 11, 2007 08:16 AM
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