{"id":18466,"date":"2018-06-20T23:44:03","date_gmt":"2018-06-20T15:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/white-house-lays-out-updated-plan-for-detecting-and-deflecting-killer-asteroids\/"},"modified":"2018-06-20T23:44:03","modified_gmt":"2018-06-20T15:44:03","slug":"white-house-lays-out-updated-plan-for-detecting-and-deflecting-killer-asteroids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/white-house-lays-out-updated-plan-for-detecting-and-deflecting-killer-asteroids\/","title":{"rendered":"White House lays out updated plan for detecting (and deflecting) killer asteroids"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Asteroid
NASA is planning missions to study how to divert a threatening asteroid, including an experiment known as DART, or Double Asteroid Redirection Test. (NASA Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The White House has issued an updated plan that lays out the roles played by NASA and other federal agencies in anticipating threats from near-Earth objects \u2014 and makes clear that if a threat arises, America will address it alone if need be to protect its national interests.<\/p>\n

The latest edition of the National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Plan lists steps to be taken over the next 10 years to heighten U.S. capabilities to respond to potentially threatening asteroids and comets.<\/p>\n

For now, the top priority is to detect and keep track of near-Earth objects, or NEOs, with NASA\u2019s Near-Earth Object Observation Program playing the lead role.<\/p>\n

NASA has already achieved one congressionally mandated objective \u2014 to detect more than 90 percent of the NEOs wider than 1 kilometer (0.6 miles). Such objects have the potential to cause mass extinctions on a scale similar to the blast that killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.<\/p>\n

But the agency has fallen short in its progress on a follow-up objective, to detect 90 percent of the NEOs with diameters in excess of 140 meters (460 feet), which are considered \u201ccity-killers\u201d capable of wreaking regional destruction.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur best estimate of that size population shows that about two-thirds remain to be found,\u201d Lindley Johnson, NASA\u2019s planetary defense officer, told journalists today.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Johnson said he expected the search to be expanded to look for NEOs as little as 50 meters (164 feet) across.<\/p>\n

The preparedness plan calls for boosting NEO-detecting capabilities, through ground-based telescope programs such as the yet-to-be-completed Large Synoptic Survey Telescope in Chile as well as space-based observing platforms.<\/p>\n

NASA has been considering a space mission known as NEOCam to help fill the gap. Johnson said some of the questions surrounding the mission, such as the performance of its infrared camera system how to deal with what\u2019s expected to be a flood of data, had to be resolved before NASA makes a decision on whether to launch NEOCam.<\/p>\n

The federal government aims to boost NASA\u2019s funding for asteroid detection and mitigation to $150 million next year. A significant chunk of that money will go toward preparations for a robotic mission called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, Johnson said.<\/p>\n

DART, due for launch in 2020, is designed to study how smashing into a NEO can redirect its path. For DART, the target is a binary near-Earth asteroid called Didymos. Johnson said such a kinetic impact could conceivably be used in the future to deflect an asteroid from a threatening path.<\/p>\n