NASA Stepping Up Hunt for Scary Asteroids

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NASA on Tuesday unveiled a multipurpose initiative to find, track and potentially relocate asteroids that may be on a collision course with Earth. The project doubles as a steppingstone toward NASAs next human space exploration project which entails capturing a small asteroid, moving it into an orbit around the moon and sending a crew of astronauts to visit it by 2021.

Top 10 Ways to Stop an Asteroid

This Grand Challenge is focused on detecting and characterizing asteroids and learning how to deal with potential threats, NASAs deputy administrator Lori Garver said in a statement.

The agency is looking for partners of all kinds industrial, educational, even crowdsourcing.

In its solicitation for proposals issued Tuesday, NASA outlined six areas of interest. They include:

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NASA wants to expand upon current (near-Earth asteroid) observation efforts through the use of innovative methods such as crowd sourcing, prizes and challenges, citizen science, and public-private partnerships to increase the resources for tackling the planetary defense problem and to broaden participation, the agency wrote in its solicitation.

Proposals are due July 18.

Image credit: NASA

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NASA Stepping Up Hunt for Scary Asteroids

NASA’s new astronaut class marks changing of guard for US spaceflight (+video)

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NASA named its first new astronauts in four years Monday. Of the eight new recruits, four are women, and all are members of the 'space shuttle generation.'

If there ever was a changing of the guard within the US astronaut corps, perhaps it came Monday.

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NASA announced the selection of four men and four women as its newest astronaut candidates, the first newcomers to the corps in four years.

For the first time, no classmate was alive either as tot or teen during the Apollo missions, Skylab, or the Apollo-Soyuz rendezvous between spacecraft launched by intense geopolitical rivals, the US and the former Soviet Union. Instead, theirs was the space-shuttle era with its tragedies as well as its successes and the birth and growth of the International Space Station.

Both have been criticized in some circles as inspirational duds.

And if the future direction of NASA's human spaceflight program keeps twisting and folding back on itself in a political taffy-pull between NASA, the White House, and Congress, that doesn't seem to be discouraging would-be space travelers..

More than 6,300 people applied for eight openings the second-largest number of applicants in the agency's history, officials say. Of those, 120 qualified to undergo initial interviews. The screening committee winnowed that down to 49 for a battery of rigorous physical and psychological tests, and another interview.

What emerged was the Elite Eight from a variety of military and civilian backgrounds, but with much in common virtually all have scuba-diving experience experience (think spacewalks), two have worked at isolated research stations in Greenland or Antarctica (space station and missions beyond low-Earth orbit), and several boast test-pilot credentials.

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NASA's new astronaut class marks changing of guard for US spaceflight (+video)

Half of NASA’s new class of astronauts are women

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NASA's new class of astronauts. Top row (L-R): Josh A. Cassada, Victor J. Glover, Tyler N. Hague, Christina M.

NASA has picked eight new astronauts, half of them women, according to a press release from the space agency.

NASA said this was the "the highest percentage of female astronaut candidates ever selected for a class." The American space agency announced that the eight astronauts were chosen from among 6,100 applicants, the equivalent of a .0013 acceptance rate.

The AP reports there are currently 49 astronauts at NASA. The newly picked group of eight will begin their training in August at Houston's Johnson Space Center.

NASA's new hire announcement comes on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the late Sally Ride's historic mission as the first woman in space. Ride remains the youngest American in space, either male or female.

NASA stressed that it chooses its astronauts based only on skill. Jay Bolden, public affairs officer at NASA, told CNN: "We have great female candidates in the pool this year. The selection is about qualifications. It has nothing to do with their genders."

In a statement, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said, "These new space explorers asked to join NASA because they know were doing big, bold things heredeveloping missions to go farther into space than ever before. Theyre excited about the science were doing on the International Space Station and our plan to launch from U.S. soil to there on spacecraft built by American companies. And theyre ready to help lead the first human mission to an asteroid and then on to Mars."

The newly chosen astronauts include Dr. Josh A. Cassada, Lt. Commander Victor J. Glover, Lt. Colonel Tyler N. Hague, Christina M. Hammock, Marine Corps Maj. Nicole Aunapu Mann, Army Maj. Anne C. McClain, Dr. Jessica U. Meir, and Maj. Andrew R. Morgan, M.D.

Mann is the first female fighter pilot chosen by NASA in nearly two decades, according to the AP.

This class of eight is the first NASA class since 2009. NBC News reports that that group of nine astronauts graduated training in November 2011, but none have gone to space yet. "Michael Hopkins will be the first of that group to fly when he launches in September to the International Space Station," NBC News wrote.

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Half of NASA’s new class of astronauts are women

NASA selects more women astronauts

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Meet NASA's newest astronaut trainees. Top row: Josh A. Cassada, Victor J. Glover, Tyler N. Hague, Christina M. Hammock. Bottom row: Nicole Aunapu Mann, Anne C. McClain, Jessica U. Meir, Andrew R. Morgan.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)

Four out of the eight candidates are women, "making this the highest percentage of female astronaut candidates ever selected for a class," the US space agency said.

The new space explorers, drawn from among 6,000 applicants, are all in their 30s, according to NASA. New astronauts will begin with a two-year general orientation training and a flight mission to low-Earth orbit afterwards.

"We have great female candidates in the pool this year. The selection is about qualifications. It has nothing to do with their genders," said Jay Bolden, public affairs officer at NASA.

Coming from combined backgrounds, the new astronauts will become full-time NASA employees. Some astronauts with military affiliations will retain their military status, and those who are not will quit their jobs, Bolden said.

NASA, which has recently stopped sending its own rockets into space, will instead outsource that work to privately held U.S. rocket maker SpaceX.

SpaceX, run by Elon Musk, the outspoken CEO of electric carmaker Tesla (TSLA) and chairman of solar panel outfitter SolarCity (SCTY), will provide the spacecraft for several flight missions, according to NASA. Potential missions include a low-Earth orbit flight, planned soon, a flight to the International Space Station planned around 2020 to 2025, a mission to land on an asteroid and then the first human mission to Mars in the 2030s.

NASA has already been in a partnership with SpaceX for several years. The company is already flying cargo missions to the International Space Station for NASA, and delivering satellites into space for commercial customers.

"The astronauts could be the first to fly to the International Space Station with a commercial flight," Bolden said.

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NASA selects more women astronauts

NASA Challenges You to Fight Asteroids

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NASA is looking for asteroids and wants you to join the hunt. But don't expect to be starring in a real-life version of "Armageddon" any time soon.

NASA unveiled some of its plans for the Asteroid Initiative at a news conference today.

While the engineers are working on the exact details of exploring and redirecting asteroids that travel a little too close to the Earth, others sent a call out to amateur scientists everywhere in what they're calling a "Grand Challenge." The challenge's statement was seen in bright red letters throughout their presentation: "Find all asteroid threats to human populations and know what to do about them."

Jason Kessler, the program executive leading the Grand Challenge, said at today's conference that the project isn't in response to any specific asteroid hurtling towards Earth.

"This is a recognition of the world that we now live in," he said. "We are more connected and better educated, and this is an opportunity to take advantage of all those aspects."

Kessler sees the public being involved primarily through two different channels. The first is by getting people more involved in the act of spotting asteroids. He looks to GalaxyZoo, a project where users quickly categorize galaxies based on their shape and lighting, for inspiration.

"We have a large data set already associated with asteroids," he said. "Are there ways that we can creatively bring people in to help with this problem?"

Asteroid Makes Close Call: 2012 DA14 to Passed Right By Earth in Feb

The other channel Kessler sees may appeal to the more tech-savvy amateur scientists -- a Request for Information document, or RFI. In the document, NASA encourages all types of organizations to submit ideas on what they would like to see the Asteroid Initiative do.

Robert Lightfoot, the associate administrator for NASA, admitted that this is very different direction than what the organization has done in the past.

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NASA Challenges You to Fight Asteroids

NASA wants you … to join Grand Challenge to hunt down asteroids

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NASA

An artist's conception shows a robotic probe, powered by a solar electric propulsion system, closing in to corral an asteroid. NASA is aiming to send out such a probe in 2017.

By Alan Boyle, Science Editor, NBC News

NASA's latest "Grand Challenge" is a biggie: Can you think of better ways to find potentially threatening near-Earth asteroids and do something about those threats? Your ideas could become part of the space agency's vision for the next decade.

The Asteroid Grand Challenge was announced on Tuesday at NASA Headquarters in Washington, but a lot of the details still have to be filled in. For instance, what are the specific tasks to be covered by the challenge? How much money will it take to stimulate the required innovations? Over the next month, NASA is gathering ideas under the terms of a request for information, with the aim of setting up a game plan for the years ahead.

"The purpose of the Grand Challenge is a call to action to continue the awareness around the issue of asteroid threats," Jason Kessler, NASA's program executive for the Asteroid Grand Challenge, told NBC News.

The program complements NASA's initiative to identify and bring back an asteroid so that astronauts can study it in the vicinity of the moon. It also meshes withNASA's long-running program to identify near-Earth asteroids.

"NASA already is working to find asteroids that might be a threat to our planet, and while we have found 95 percent of the large asteroids near theEarth's orbit, we need to find all those that might be a threat to Earth," NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said in an agency news release. "This Grand Challenge is focused on detecting and characterizing asteroids and learning how to deal with potential threats. We will also harness public engagement, open innovation and citizen science to help solve this global problem."

All this interest in asteroids got an extra jolt in February when a meteor blast sent a shock wave sweeping over Siberia, injuring more than 1,000 people. The 55-foot-wide (17-meter-wide) space rock behind that flare-up was relatively small, as space threats go, but even somewhat larger rocks are difficult to detect in advance using current tools. The Grand Challenge is meant to stimulate the development of new tools and techniques, Kessler said.

For instance, the program might encourage the development of nanosatellites equipped with expandable pop-out mirrors that could do a better job of detecting dim asteroids. It could offer prizes for improving the software that models an asteroid's shape. Or it could establish school observation networks to bring the power of crowdsourcing to asteroid detection.

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NASA wants you ... to join Grand Challenge to hunt down asteroids

NASA’s Grand Challenge: Stop Asteroids from Destroying Earth

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There may be killer asteroids headed for Earth, and NASA has decided to do something about it. The space agency announced a new "Grand Challenge" today (June 18) to find all dangerous space rocks and figure out how to stop them from destroying Earth.

The new mission builds on projects already underway at NASA, including a plan to capture an asteroid, pull it in toward the moon and send astronauts to visit it. As part of the Grand Challenge, the agency issued a "request for information" today aiming to solicit ideas from industry, academia and the public on how to improve the asteroid mission plan.

"We're asking for you to think about concepts and different approaches for what we've described here," William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human explorations and operations, said today during a NASA event announcing the initiative. "We want you to think about other ways of enhancing this to get the most out of it." [How It Works:NASA Asteroid-CaptureMissionin Pictures]

Responses to the request for information, which also seeks ideas for detecting and mitigating asteroid threats, are due July 18.

The asteroid-retrieval mission, designed to provide the first deep-space mission for astronauts flying on NASA's Space Launch System rocket and Orion space capsule under development, has come under fire from lawmakers who would prefer that NASA return to the moon.

A draft NASA authorization bill from the House space subcommittee being debated right now would cancel the mission and steer the agency toward other projects. That bill will be discussed during a hearing Wednesday (June 19) at 10 a.m. EDT.

But NASA officials defended the asteroid mission today and said they were confident they'd win Congress' support once they explained its benefits further.

"I think that we really, truly are going to be able to show the value of the mission," NASA Associate Administrator Lori Garver said today. "To me, this is something that what we do in this country we debate how we spend the public's money. This is the beginning of the debate."

Garver also maintained that sending astronauts to an asteroid would not diminish NASA's other science and exploration goals, including another lunar landing.

"This initiative takes nothing from the other valuable work," she said. "This is only a small piece of our overall strategy, but it is an integral piece. It takes nothing from the moon."

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NASA's Grand Challenge: Stop Asteroids from Destroying Earth

NASA wants backyard astronomers to help track asteroids

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By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - NASA called on backyard astronomers and other citizen-scientists on Tuesday to help track asteroids that could create havoc on Earth.

The U.S. space agency has already identified 95 percent of the potentially planet-killing NEOs - near Earth objects - with a diameter of .62 miles or more, a size comparable to the space rock many scientists believe wiped out the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago.

Now NASA wants to work with individuals, government agencies, international partners and academia to "find all asteroid threats to human populations and know what to do about them." More information is available online at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/asteroids/initiative/grand_challenge.html .

Between 50 and 100 amateur astronomers are doing what is called light-curve analysis on space rocks, making repeated images of the astronomical bodies to help determine their characteristics, said Jason Kessler, program executive for what NASA calls Astroid Grand Challenge.

"We're certainly going to need more help with that as our detection rate goes up," Kessler said by telephone. He acknowledged that what NASA aims to do, at least in part, is to crowd-source asteroid detection.

Even smaller space rocks can be dangerous, whether or not they hit the Earth. In February, a meteorite about 19 yards in diameter exploded over central Russia, shattering windows, damaging buildings and injuring 1,200 people.

Earlier this month, an asteroid the size of a small truck zoomed past the Earth four times closer than the moon, crossing within about 65,000 miles over the Southern Ocean south of Tasmania, Australia.

Estimates suggest less than 10 percent of NEOs smaller than 328 yards across have been detected, and less than 1 percent of objects smaller than 109 yards in diameter have been detected, NASA said in a statement.

The initiative aims to detect all NEOs of 33 yards or larger, Kessler said.

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NASA wants backyard astronomers to help track asteroids

We All Need to Help NASA Find Killer Asteroids

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Welcome to the NASA Grand Challenge, where everyone from government agencies to citizen scientists will compete to figure out the best way to detect and study earth-threatening asteroids. This is a real thing that is happening, and it's all complimentary to the agency's initiative to lasso an asteroid for further study.

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NASA loves studying asteroids for two big reasons: first, one that's large enough could destroy all life on earth upon impact. and second, we might be able to use them as rest stops to Mars. And while we're currently fresh out of space-going manned vehicles, NASA has grand plans to snag an asteroid by 2019, with a mission to Mars some time after 2020 (they've even picked some potential astronauts for those missions). A grand plan needs a Grand Challenge (which is actually a term from the Obama administration) to get things going,so here's how you could help NASA out:

"NASA already is working to find asteroids that might be a threat to our planet, and while we have found 95 percent of the large asteroids near theEarth's orbit, we need to find all those that might be a threat to Earth," said NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver. "This Grand Challenge is focused on detecting and characterizing asteroids and learning how to deal with potential threats. We will also harness public engagement, open innovation and citizen science to help solve this global problem."

Along with backyard astronomers, NASA will invite "government agencies, international partners, industry, and academia" to take part in the challenge.

RELATED: NASA Hasn't Found Any Earth-Destroying Asteroids, Yet

No, it's not very specific. But NASA has promised to reveal more in the coming months, including on financial initiatives to get things going. But the basics are already clear: find killer asteroids, and tell NASA. So put on your thinking caps. Your planet needs you.

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We All Need to Help NASA Find Killer Asteroids

Nuclear Medicine: "The Atom and Biological Science" 1952 Encyclopaedia Britannica Films – Video

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Nuclear Medicine: "The Atom and Biological Science" 1952 Encyclopaedia Britannica Films
more at http://scitech.quickfound.net/ "Describes some of the biological effects of high energy radiations on plants and animal cells. Explains how typical e...

By: Jeff Quitney

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Nuclear Medicine: "The Atom and Biological Science" 1952 Encyclopaedia Britannica Films - Video