Here is the full CBS 60 Minutes segment on asteroids that was shown on Sunday evening (see earlier post):
Category Archives: Asteroids & Comets
CBS 60 Minutes program to report on NEOs; Ed Lu of B612 Foundation interviewed
Former astronaut Ed Lu, now with the B612 Foundation, will be on the CBS 60 Minutes news program this evening to talk about near earth asteroids and their threat to earth : Dr. Ed Lu on 60 MINUTES – B612 Foundation:
[ Update: See complete segment in the post above.]
Here is an excerpt:
The Chelyabinsk meteor in weather sat images + Glorious earth images
Here’s an interesting account of tracking down images from the Russian Elektro-L weather satellite showing the trail of the fireball meteor that struck over Chelyabinsk last February: On space kindness and the Chelyabinsk meteor – The Planetary Society.
And here is a GIF animation of the meteor created from images made by the EUMETSAT Meteosat-10 geostationary satellite : Trails of Chelyabinsk viewed from space – The Planetary Society.
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Here is a sequence of beautiful full color images of earth produced by Elektro-L over January 2013:
The satellite images the earth every 30 minutes. Twice a year during an equinox, it captures an entire hemisphere in a single shot with no night terminator line in view.
Misc: Chinese lunar lander preped; Late Veneer or not; Better NEO finding; More bucks for VASIMR documentary
A diverse array of unconnected items that have built up in my posting queue:
- The Chinese preparations for their first lunar lander is progressing towards a launch this year: Chang’e-3 lunar probe sent to launch site – China.org.cn
- Clues to how the early earth was formed come from gold in the crust and in meteorites but they don’t settle the argument in favor of the “Late Veneer” model: Does gold come from outer space? – BBC
- The rate at which small asteroids are discovered may soon shoot up, so to speak: “Synthetic Tracking” Set to Revolutionise Near-Earth Asteroid Discovery — The Physics arXiv Blog
- Ad Astra Rocket Company raised more than twice the target for its crowdfunding campaign to pay for development of a high production quality documentary video to explain its VASIMR propulsion technology: Animating VASIMR®: The Future of Spaceflight by Ad Astra Rocket Company — Kickstarte
NASA reaches out to Makers for help with Asteroid Grand Challenge
NASA;s Chief Technologist Mason Peck to attend Maker Faire to ask help of Makers “for ideas on how to find, track and deflect asteroids” as part of the agency’s Asteroid Initiative and Grand Challenge:
NASA Highlights Asteroid Grand Challenge at World Maker Faire
NASA is reaching out to a new community for ideas on how to find and track potentially hazardous asteroids, and protect the planet from their impacts. The World Maker Faire is being held Sept. 21-22 at the New York Hall of Science, 47-01 111th St., in New York.
The World Maker Faire is a festival of invention, creativity and resourcefulness – the exact qualities NASA is looking for to help in solving the global challenge asteroid threats present.
NASA Chief Technologist Mason Peck will be on hand to talk about how Makers can help shape space exploration and be a critical player in NASA’s asteroid initiative.
“Unlike traditional NASA missions of exploration and science, this grand challenge is driven by the idea that protecting our planet is an issue bigger than any one program, mission or country,” Peck said. “For the first time, NASA has reached out to industry, academia, stakeholder organizations and private citizens for ideas on how to find, track and deflect asteroids. These partnerships represent a new way of doing business for NASA and a call to action for Makers: join us to become a critical part of the future of space exploration.”
NASA will offer Makers a chance to program science hardware and learn how small, do-it-yourself projects might be used to help track and understand asteroids, using their own personal computers. NASA also will showcase the Centennial Challenges Program, with winning teams and technology from the Astronaut Glove and Sample Robot Return challenges.
Media interested in attending Maker Faire should register online at: http://makerfaire.com
Media interested in speaking to Peck should contact Sarah Ramsey at sarah.ramsey@nasa.gov.
NASA’s asteroid initiative has two parts: the mission by astronauts to explore an asteroid and a grand challenge to protect the planet. It is included in President Obama’s fiscal year 2014 budget request for NASA, and leverages the agency’s progress on asteroid discovery and study, the Space Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft and cutting-edge technology development.
For more information about NASA’s asteroid initiative, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/asteroidinitiative
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Here is a video of the Asteroid Grand Challenge announcement back in June: