Good jon Congress - budget cuts will prevent NASA from tracking deadly asteroids

[The Fake Shemp]

How will we prevent Deep Impact or, dare I say, ARMAGEDDON?

(WIRED) -- Without more funding, NASA will not meet its goal of tracking 90 percent of all deadly asteroids by 2020, according to a report released today by the National Academy of Sciences.

The agency is on track to soon be able to spot 90 percent of the potentially dangerous objects that are at least a kilometer (.6 miles) wide, a goal previously mandated by Congress.

Asteroids of this size are estimated to strike Earth once every 500,000 years on average and could be capable of causing a global catastrophe if they hit Earth. In 2008, NASA's Near Earth Object Program spotted a total of 11,323 objects of all sizes.

But without more money in the budget, NASA won't be able to keep up with a 2005 directive to track 90 percent of objects bigger than 460 feet across. An impact from an asteroid of this size could cause significant damage and be very deadly, particularly if it were to strike near a populated area.

Meeting that goal "may require the building of one or more additional observatories, possibly including a space-based observatory," according to the report.

[Mr. Gundam]

We don't need NASA, we just need Bruce and Ben.

[Tauntaun]

And I don't want to miss a thiiiiing. 

[FlameOfCallandor]

I'm running out of astronaut ice cream flavors. Can we have a NASA stimulus for more?

[The Fake Shemp]

Remember that time that you were annihilated by a list of technology and inventions that have helped humanity thanks in part or entirely due to NASA?

[FlameOfCallandor]

Partly due to do NASA. 

[Mandark]

Partly due to do NASA. 

Due to do indeed.

[The Fake Shemp]

Or we could do inventions created entirely from NASA.

Let's play a game.  I want to see how long you can last without using anything created from NASA technology or research.

[The Fake Shemp]

Looks like there will be no dialysis treatment for Grandma Callandor this year. :'(

[Human Snorenado]

Now if only we could get rid of that wasteful volcano monitoring spending.

[Scurvy Stan]

Forget asteroids, I want a manned mission to mars.

[ManaByte]

Someone please send a copy of this to FoC. It's FREE:
http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/

They do one every year. Takes a while to get it in the mail, but it's FREE.

Edit: Or you can just read it online:
http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/Spinoff2008/pdf/spinoff2008.pdf

[ferrarimanf355]

PEW PEW PEW 

[EmCeeGrammar]

I honestly feel bumping space rocks with satelites was the most practical thing NASA was up to recently.

[The Fake Shemp]

You are also a ninthing, so that goes without saying.

[ToxicAdam]

This strikes me a lot like the school board that threatens to take away sports if the levy doesn't pass.

[Phoenix Dark]

Everything we need to know about space was recorded in the bible thousands of years ago. I don't see the point in wasting billions to confirm the written word

[brawndolicious]

Didn't they already keep track of the major asteroids that might hit in the next hundreds of years or so?  I'd bet that NASA spends more on astronaut toilets then they do on asteroid tracking.