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Posted by Ho Ho Ho on December 14, 2006, 2:22 am
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baalke@earthlink.net wrote:
>
http://planetary.org/about/press/releases/2006/1213_Planetary_Society_Offers_50000_Prize.html
>
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
> December 13. 2006
> CONTACT:
> Contact Susan Lendroth
> Voice: (626) 793-5100
> Fax: (626) 793-5528
> Email: tps@planetary.org
>
> Planetary Society Offers $50,000 Prize for Asteroid Tagging Designs
>
> San Francisco , CA, - Today at the fall meeting of the American
> Geophysical Union, The Planetary Society announced the launch of their
> Apophis Mission Design Competition, which invites participants to
> submit
> designs for a mission to rendezvous with and "tag" a potentially
> dangerous near-Earth asteroid. Tagging may be necessary to track an
> asteroid accurately enough to determine whether it will impact Earth,
> and thus help facilitate the decision whether to mount a deflection
> mission to alter its orbit. The Planetary Society is offering $50,000
> in
> prize money for the competition.
>
> Apophis is an approximately 400 meter near-Earth object (NEO), which
> will come closer to Earth in 2029 than the orbit of our geostationary
> satellites. On that pass, the asteroid will be gravitationally
> perturbed to an unknown orbit, one that could cause it to hit Earth in
> 2036.
>
> "While the odds are very slim that this particular asteroid will hit
> Earth in 30 years, they are not zero, and Apophis and other NEOs
> represent threats that need to be addressed," said Rusty Schweickart,
> Apollo astronaut, head of the Association for Space Explorers NEO
> committee.
>
> Bruce Betts, The Planetary Society's Director of Projects said, "With
> this competition, we hope not only to generate creative thinking about
> tagging Apophis, but also to stimulate greater awareness of the broader
> near-Earth object threat."
>
> Very precise tracking may be needed to determine the probability of a
> collision in 2036. Such precise tracking may require "tagging" the
> asteroid, perhaps with a beacon -- a transponder or reflector -- or
> some
> other method. Exactly how an asteroid could best be tagged is not yet
> known, nor is it obvious. "Learning how to do this is the point of the
> competition," added Betts.
>
> The Planetary Society is "betting" $50,000 that someone will devise an
> innovative solution to the problem. The prize money was contributed and
> competition made possible by Dan Geraci, a member of The Planetary
> Society Board of Directors, together with donations from Planetary
> Society members around the world. Geraci stated, "The time scale may
> be unknown, but the danger of a near-Earth object impact is very real.
>
> We need to spur the space community and indeed all people into thinking
> about technical solutions."
>
> The Planetary Society is conducting this competition in cooperation
> with
> the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA, the Association of Space
> Explorers (ASE), the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
> (AIAA), and the Universities Space Research Association (USRA). The
> Society will present the winning entries to the world's major space
> agencies, and the findings of the competition will be presented at
> relevant scientific and engineering conferences.
>
> If Apophis passes through a several hundred-meter wide "keyhole" in
> 2029, it will impact Earth in 2036. While current estimates rate the
> probability of impact as very low, Apophis is being used as an example
> to enable design of a broader type of mission to any potentially
> dangerous asteroid.
>
> The competition design scenario asks participants to imagine that
> Earth-based observations of Apophis made over the coming years are not
> sufficient to know whether the asteroid will or will not pass through
> the 2029 keyhole, and that a better orbit determination is needed to
> know if a deflection mission is required. The competition requires
> that
> the tagging mission be designed to return information fast enough so
> that by the year 2017 space agencies could determine whether they need
> to send a mission to deflect the asteroid from the keyhole.
>
> See Apophis Competition rules. <http://planetary.org/apophis>
>
> Teams or individuals intending to submit a proposal should submit a
> Notice of Intent to Propose by March 1, 2007. The deadline for
> proposals is August 31, 2007.
>
> The Apophis Mission Design Competition is open to anyone from any
> country. Proposals may be submitted by individuals or teams. The
> competition is open to teams from academia and industry as well as
> student and private groups, and to government groups or individuals not
> using government salaries to support their participation in the Contest
> (see rules for details).
>
> $50,000 in prize money will be awarded. The judges will determine how
> to
> distribute the award money among one or more prize winners. At least
> $25,000 will be awarded to the first prize winner. At least $5,000 is
> reserved for the best submission received from a student team (who is
> not precluded from winning the first prize), in which all substantive
> work was performed by current students (high school, undergraduate, or
> graduate), with no more than two faculty advisors. Remaining prize
> money may be distributed as honorable mention awards.
>
> Additionally, the first prize winner, or one member of the first prize
> winning team, will receive award travel, including transportation,
> food,
> and lodging, to attend a future major science or engineering conference
> to present their results.
>
> The Apophis Mission Design Competition Committee includes Bruce Betts,
> Director of Projects, The Planetary Society; Daniel Durda, Planetary
> Scientist, Southwest Research Institute; Louis Friedman, Executive
> Director, The Planetary Society; Lewis Peach, Chief Engineer, USRA;
> Russell "Rusty" Schweickart, Apollo astronaut and Association of Space
> Explorers NEO Committee Chairman; and Simon "Pete" Worden, Director,
> NASA Ames Research Center.
>
> Since The Planetary Society's inception in 1980, the organization has
> donated well over a quarter million dollars to asteroid research, about
> half of which was awarded through Gene Shoemaker Near Earth Object
> Grants to amateur observers, observers in developing countries, and
> professional astronomers around the world.
>
> About the Planetary Society
>
> The Planetary Society has inspired millions of people to explore other
> worlds and seek other life. Today, its international membership makes
> the non-governmental Planetary Society the largest space interest group
> in the world. Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray and Louis Friedman founded The
> Planetary Society in 1980.
>
> The Planetary Society
> 65 N. Catalina Avenue
> Pasadena, CA 91106-2301 USA
> Web: www.planetary.org
> Voice: (626) 793-5100
> Fax: (626) 793-5528
> Email: tps@planetary.org
>
> #####
Well I think its a good idea, much better than small private companies
trying to take passengers into space!? A very fast rocket with a
penetrating nose cone should do the trick. On a similar note we
had many penetrating probes dropped from high altitude aircraft
to monitor troop movements along the Ho Chi Min trail.
This is an idea worth pursuing with many payoffs.
klm
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