Space experts call for contingency plan against Earth Killer asteroid strike
by Stevie Smith - Nov 26 2008, 13:00
Worried star-gazing experts have this week submitted a pre-emptive report to the United Nations in Vienna, calling for the urgent development of preventative measures designed to help avoid the possible planetary collision of so-called Earth Killer asteroids.
According to the international Association of Space Explorers (ASE) and its Asteroid Threats: A Call for Global Response report, “several dozen” of the currently known 5,600 near-Earth objects present a very real threat in terms of hitting the planet and inflicting localised or regional devastation.
And that number is likely to rise considerably given that some 500,000 other potentially dangerous chunks of roaming space debris are expected to be uncovered over the course of the next 15 years as better location technology is created.
“This is a natural disaster, which is larger, potentially, than any other natural disaster we know of,” commented ASE member and former Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart in an AP report. “However, it is preventable... that's a very important thing to keep in mind. But it is our responsibility to take action to do that.”
In order to actively counter any growing threats, the ASE report wants the United Nations and its member states to construct a focused location and communication framework so that contributing governments can easily share information related to asteroid tracking while also working together with a view to engineering possible lifesaving solutions.
On the subject of possible prevention, the ASE maintains that adequate technological knowledge already exists to help increase the chance of collision avoidance, offering up solutions such as breaking up an incoming asteroid with nuclear weaponry, or by using the gravitational forces of a nearby spaceship to alter its trajectory.
While solutions involving the potential destruction of any sizeable near-Earth object would likely lead to several smaller impacts, the ASE maintains that localised damage is preferable to total loss of life across the planet and that any structured warning system would help expedite evacuations in possible impact areas.
The international Association of Space Explorers consists of some 320 people who have made the journey into space during their lives.
The most recent collision of note suffered by the planet happened in 1908 when the infamous Tunguska object exploded over a remote part of central Siberia, unleashing enough power to level around 60 million trees across a 2,150 square kilometre blast zone.
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