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NASA's director Jim Bridenstine sounds the alarm that an asteroid strike is not something to be taken lightly and is perhaps the biggest threat on Earth.
Speaking at the 2019 Global Planetary Defense Conference of the International Academy of Astronautics in College Park, Maryland on Monday, Bridenstine said that the space agency and other scientists Asteroid specialists had to make sure that people understood that the threat was real and not just the imagination of big blockbuster movie directors.
"We have to make sure people understand that it's not Hollywood or movies," Bridenstine told the conference, according to Space.com. "It is ultimately about protecting the only planet we currently know to harbor life, and that is the planet Earth."
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"We know for a fact that dinosaurs did not have a space program, but we do it and we have to use it," Bridenstine added, attempting to represent planetary defense at the same level as one. back on the moon. The Trump Administration wants to see astronauts return to the Moon by 2024, with or without the help of NASA.
NASA's director, Jim Bridenstine, appears before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology on April 2, 2019 during a hearing to review the application. NASA budget for the financial year 2020.
Bridenstine knows too well the dangers of asteroids. In February 2013, he was a member of the Oklahoma Congress for just one month when a devastating asteroid was crossing the Russian skies.
Known as the Chelyabinsk event, it was the largest meteor strike known for more than a century and more than 1,600 people were injured. She "released the energy equivalent of about 440,000 tons of TNT," according to NASA.
"I would like to be able to tell you that these events are exceptionally unique," said Bridenstine during the presentation, noting that they have occurred on three occasions over the last 100 years. "But they are not."
Currently, there are two missions focused on asteroids in the world: NASA's OSIRIS-REx probe, which reached the asteroid Bennu in December 2018, and the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2, which recently "bombed" Ryugu asteroid in order to learn more. about that.
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Bridenstine emphasized the scientific importance of both missions but added that global defense was also an important element. "Yes, it's science, discovery, exploration, but one of the reasons we do these missions is to be able to characterize those objects to protect, again, the only planet we know to welcome life. "
"We have to use our systems, use our capabilities to finally get a lot more data, and we need to do it faster," Bridenstine said.
Planetary Defense
Regarding global defense, NASA is not left out, it has taken several steps to protect the Earth by detecting and following objects near the Earth, also called NEO.
Last June, NASA unveiled a 20-page plan detailing what the US should do to be better prepared for NEOs, asteroids, and comets within 30 million kilometers of Earth. Lindley Johnson, the space agency's global defense officer, said at the time that the country "already has significant scientific, technical and operational capabilities" to assist NEOs, but that the Implementation of the new plan "would significantly increase our country's preparedness and collaboration with international partners" to respond effectively if a potential new impact on an asteroid was detected. "
There are about 18,000 known NEOs and this number is constantly increasing.
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In 2016, NASA formalized its previous program for the detection and monitoring of near-Earth objects and integrated it into its scientific mission direction.
NASA will launch its first asteroid defense mission, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, in 2022. Earlier this month, NASA awarded a $ 69 million contract to SpaceX, the world's largest and most trusted Space exploration led by Elon Musk, to assist in the realization of the DART.
Currently, asteroid scientists around the world are conducting an exercise to show what the different world agencies would do about a possible collision between asteroids. For the first time, the exercise takes place on social media. The updates of the hypothetical event are shared on the Twitter account of ESA Operations until May 3.
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