[FPSPACE] Caves on Mars

[Jens Kieffer-Olsen]

-----Original Message-----
From: DSFPortree at aol.com [mailto:DSFPortree at aol.com] 
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2007 11:40 PM

> I wonder - could these space-based asteroid detection
> observatories be justified in terms of other astronomy
> they might do? Like SOHO and sun-grazing comets? Or would
> they be so specialized that they'd be unable to do much else? 

 Good question. Like asking 50 years ago, if hydrogen bombs
 could be justified in terms of other tasks than keeping 
 Russki commies in check.

> The LONEOS search program at Lowell Observatory uses a
> dedicated 21-inch telescope, though there doesn't seem
> to be any reason that it couldn't do other things.
> It has captured a number of comets and many Main Belt
> asteroids in addition to the NEOs it seeks. I suppose
> that the data might include things like eclipsing
> binaries and variable stars, though I don't think anyone
> has used them that way.
>
> David

 Generally speaking unmanned observatories need not be
 starved of funds, since we probably agree that the drain
 on the budget owes to us dispatching alive-and-kicking
 astronauts into outer space - and bringing them back home
 in the same condition.

 I have extracted three paragraphs from the NASA report
 on NEO Survey and Deflection. Shame on those congressmen
 who don't adhere to the message.  

 "Observatories located in a Venus-like orbit are the most
 efficient at finding NEOs inside Earth's orbit, a population
 which has the most uncertainty yet still poses a hazard due
 to gravitational orbit perturbations."

 "Table 11 shows that the options that exceed the goals of the
 Survey program also provide other benefits. The middle column
 of the table shows that systems that operate in Venus-like
 orbits are more efficient at finding Aten and Interior Earth
 Objects, a potentially underrepresented population of PHOs."

 "The second objective of characterization is to "inform
 mitigation." Depending on the mitigation strategy selected,
 this objective may require information beyond the size and
 orbit of PHOs. This information may include the structure,
 porosity, rotation rate, material composition, and surface
 features of the object."

 The last paragraph points to the need for transponders to
 be placed on a few asteroids, those that we cannot determine
 by observation alone whether will hit Earth. Apart from
 Apophis, which the NEO community is of course fully aware
 of, 1950 DA falls into that group. Let's get started then,
 because the extended Spaceguard program is likely to add
 a few more to the NEO group begging for transponder missions.

--
Jens Kieffer-Olsen
Slagelse, Denmark