This area will cover relevant news of the threat to the planet from Near Earth Objects (NEOs) including concepts and designs for mitigation. All opinions are those of the author.

07 May 2010

Update on NASA Support to Planetary Radar

From a NASA summary document (27 April 2010) detailing NASA's support to Planetary Radar...

NASA has therefore agreed to establish continued support to the Arecibo facility expressly for planetary radar capabilities under its Near Earth Object Observation Program. The NASA budget was appropriated $2M in FY2010 for this purpose. It is NASA’s intent to continue this level of support, increased at inflation rates, providing the funding is appropriated for this purpose each year by the US Congress. Any institution awarded the cooperative agreement for the management and operation of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (Arecibo Observatory) may then propose to NASA for this planetary radar supplement under the NEO Observation Program. It would be expected in such proposal that at least 500 hours per year of telescope operations would then be allocated to planetary radar research supported by NASA, and at least 300 hours of that dedicated specifically to NEO research. A list of scheduled and historical radar observations of NEOs is available at http://www.naic.edu/~pradar/sched.shtml.

POC for further information is Lindley Johnson, NEO Program Executive, Planetary Science Division, Science Mission Directorate, HQ NASA (lindley.johnson@nasa.gov, or 202-358-2314).

Link: NASA Support to Planetary Radar

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