• Rhaedas@fedia.io
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    13 hours ago

    So do they fund or support the minimal observation time made by professionals for threatening NEOs? Or are they just who NASA would call once a threat is established? And at the meeting the President would ask them, “okay, what are we going to do?” And they would reply, “there isn’t anything feasible we can do at this point for prevention, sir. Just evacuate the impact point once we’re very sure of it.”

    • b1t@lemm.ee
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      13 hours ago

      I’m guessing it would depend on how early they’re detected. I’m not involved in planning or anything, just putting what I know about them out there. But yes, they would be who NASA calls when they find something.

      I know they were involved in the DART mission. With the satellites used being launched and operated out of Vandenberg, a Space Force base.

      • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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        13 hours ago

        It really is more a function of time than anything else. The more time you have, the less action needed to change things. Plus, more time to analyze and confirm the path of danger as well as what the object is composed of (very important for what actions to take). Being able to detect early is our biggest weak point, as there is no active 24/7 search fully dedicated to that goal, it’s all done from the night side of the planet during unused time on professional telescopes, and by amateurs wanting to verify their findings. The best way is with a full time space-based sweep in an orbit far from Earth.

          • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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            13 hours ago

            I hadn’t kept up with it. I think it will do for NEOs and the like what Kepler did for extrasolar planets. I doubt there’s a dinosaur killer size out there now, but still plenty of city killers to find, and they are the ones we can realistically alter course once we know about them.