The U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology’s Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics press release is reproduced below:

November 8, 2007

(Washington, DC) The U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology’s Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics today examined the status of NASA’s Near-Earth Object (NEO) survey program, reviewed the findings and recommendations of NASA’s report to Congress, and sought to assess NASA’s plans for complying with the NASA Authorization Act of 2005 regarding NEOs.

“NASA’s NEO survey program is our ‘insurance policy’ against getting taken by surprise by an incoming asteroid. Much progress has been made in detecting and cataloging the largest NEOs over the last decade. However, much more remains to be done,” said Udall. “We need to survey the smaller but still potentially hazardous asteroids that could do significant damage if they impact or explode above the Earth’s surface. While the probability of such a direct hit is low, we in Congress have a responsibility for the safety of American citizens and we have directed NASA to come up with a survey plan. NASA didn’t deliver a plan that would get the job done. I will continue to work with NASA and hold the agency accountable until their plan is complete.”

NEOs are asteroids and comets of varying sizes whose orbits come near to that of the Earth, thereby posing a potential threat of collision at some point in the future. The Committee has a long history of bipartisan interest in the potential threat posed by NEOs, in opportunities offered by NEOs for scientific research, and as potential extraterrestrial sources of minerals and other materials over the long run. The Committee’s involvement began in the early 1990s under then-Chairman George Brown with legislation directing NASA to conduct workshops on detecting and intercepting NEOs.

The NASA Authorization Act of 2005 mandated that NASA report to Congress on their plan to “detect, track, catalogue and characterize” NEOs of 140 meters or larger in size. However, the report NASA submitted did not identify a recommended option or budget plan beyond continuing doing what it is already doing – something that NASA concedes will not achieve the objectives mandated in the NASA Authorization Act.

“We need to survey potentially hazardous asteroids that are smaller than the ones cataloged to date, but which could do significant damage if they collide with the Earth,” said Udall. “That is why Congress directed NASA to ‘plan, develop, and implement’ a NEO survey program for objects as small as 140 meters in size in the NASA Authorization Act of 2005. I am very concerned that NASA’s report to Congress failed to provide a recommended option and budget plan for such a survey, as directed by the Act. As committee chairman, it is my responsibility to make certain that this plan is completed and I will continue to closely monitor NASA’s work until it is finished.”

Thus, Subcommittee Chairman Udall and Members at today’s hearing sought to clarify exactly how best to move forward in meeting the objectives mandated in the Act. Members also sought answers as to the roles that other agencies’ existing and proposed observatories—such as the Arecibo Observatory, LSST, and PanSTARRs—can play in NEO detection and tracking. Arecibo, which is operated by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is facing funding cuts that could eventually result in its closure.

Astronomers estimate that 20,000 potentially hazardous asteroids orbit within the vicinity of Earth and the Sun. On March 23, 1989, the 1989 FC asteroid came within 430,000 miles of Earth. 1989 FC carried the energy estimated to be more than 1000 one-megaton hydrogen bombs but it was only discovered after it had already made its closest approach to Earth. Asteroid 99942 Apophis, discovered in 2004, is estimated to be roughly 300 meters in diameter, and could pass as close as 29,470 km [about 18,300 miles] from the Earth’s surface. The probability of impact in 2036, when the asteroid makes another close approach, is currently estimated to be 1/45,000.

For further information on this hearing, please visit the Committee’s website at www.house.gov/science.


Source: Subcommittee press release

The U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology’s press release is reproduced below:

Committee on Science
Ralph Hall, Texas, Ranking Member
Washington D.C. - November 8, 2007 – Today, Members of the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics were told that the devastating consequences of a large asteroid striking the Earth, while unlikely, demand continuation of NASA’s surveying and cataloging of Near Earth Objects (NEOs). Members also learned that the Arecibo Observatory, located in Puerto Rico, provides a unique capability to precisely monitor the orbits of asteroids and comets that venture close to Earth. In 1998, NASA was tasked with detecting, tracking, cataloguing and monitoring NEOs, and while NASA has been largely successful in meeting the original goals of its mission, there are still numerous potentially threatening NEOs that go undetected.

Highlighting the magnitude of NASA’s mission, Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee Ranking Member Tom Feeney (R-FL) commended the work being done, saying, “NASA’s Near Earth Object program, though very modest in scale compared to many of the agency’s multi-billion dollar endeavors, is vitally important, and NASA has been doing an exemplary job standing-up an office and managing the nation’s – and world’s – only survey for potentially hazardous Earth-crossing asteroids and comets.”

Witnesses at today’s hearing emphasized the important role that the Arecibo Observatory plays in quickly calculating the orbit and likelihood of impact of NEOs. Arecibo is the largest and most sensitive ground-based radar telescope in the world, and has been used to successfully monitor NEOs and improve orbit models, as well as identify the mass, shape, trajectory, and size of NEOs. Unfortunately, the Arecibo facility, operated by Cornell University under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF), is only funded through fiscal year 2008, and is in serious jeopardy of shutting down.

Testifying before the Subcommittee, Representative Luis Fortuño (Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico), urged Congress to take measures in order to ensure Arecibo’s continued funding. “As the world’s largest and most powerful radio telescope, the Arecibo Observatory is essential to monitoring and surveying Near Earth Objects,” Fortuño said. “However, the National Science Foundation has threatened to close the Observatory. . .and NASA has so far been unwilling to assume funding of the radar required for tracking NEOs. Closing the Observatory will severely limit our ability to quickly and accurately refine the orbits of newly emerging threats, and reduce our monitoring capabilities.”

Fortuño continued, “A potentially dangerous collision of an asteroid or comet is a very real threat. We must take action now to enhance our awareness to prevent a catastrophe. A better understanding of our skies will not only help us to comprehend the wonders of the Earth’s environment, but is essential to assessing the dangers that may threaten our society. The world’s most sensitive radio/radar telescope at Arecibo Observatory must not be closed.”

Echoing the importance of Arecibo to monitoring NEOs, Dr. Donald K. Yeomans, Manager of the NEO Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said, “(T)he planetary science community is in danger of losing one of its instrumental crown jewels.”

In 1998, NASA initiated a program to detect 90 percent of all potentially hazardous asteroids and comets larger than 1 kilometer in diameter, within a decade. While NASA is on target meet this goal, scientists have suggested that smaller NEO’s have the potential to cause great damage on a regional level, particularly if they hit a densely populated area.

Based on these recommendations, in 2005 the Science and Technology Committee expanded the mission of NASA’s NEO program through legislation signed by the President, directing the agency to monitor all NEOs of 140 meters in diameter or larger. Members, today, emphasized the need for NASA to maintain a robust survey of NEOs as directed in the 2005 authorization.

Also testifying at today’s hearing were: Dr. James Green, Science Mission Directorate, NASA; Dr. Scott Pace, Program Analysis and Evaluation, NASA; Dr. Donald B. Campbell, Cornell University; Dr. J. Anthony Tyson, University of California, Davis; and Mr. Russell “Rusty” Schweickart, B612 Foundation.


Source: Committee press release