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In these tough economic times, we need to look at the many superfluous programs that our State and Federal Tax dollars are being spent on. I increasingly hear people wonder why we’re funding the Space program. “Shut NASA Down, We’ll save Billions”, I’ve heard it a hundred, if not a thousand times. Sounds reasonable to me.
In support of our Space program, I could give a lengthy list of all the things, products, and technologies that come directly as a benefit from Space research.* (For a full description. please go here: http://www.thespaceplace.com/nasa/spinoffs.html) However, aside from all of these wonderful gizmo’s, there is one real answer:
Our survival as a species depends on it.
On Monday afternoon, an asteroid (named 2009 DD45) passed dangerously close to the earth. At 40,000 miles out, it passed at less than twice the distance of most of our satellites in geosynchronous orbit, which is approx. 26,200 miles above the Earth. It was estimated to be the same size as the asteroid that exploded over Siberia in 1908 and leveled more than 800 square miles of forest. Had 2009 DD45 slammed down onto the Earth, it would have exploded with the force of a large nuclear blast somewhere in the Pacific Ocean west of Tahiti.
Most surprising of all is that we only had 2 days notice… 2009 DD45 was spotted last Saturday by astronomers in Australia, and verified by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Centre (MPC), which catalogues solar system rocks. Not to add any alarm, but 2009 DD45 will get another chance at hitting us… Astronomers said the asteroid is likely to return for another series of near misses since it’s drawn in by our planet’s gravity.
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