Source: The Orlando Sentinel
Folks here should quit whining about President Obama whacking our boondoggle moon trip and get with the new space program: saving planet Earth from certain destruction.
That gig could keep us fat in NASA pork for decades to come.
Forget the moon. It isn’t going to crash into us and extinguish all life as we know it.
Asteroids are another matter. Eventually one is going to take us out, just like one took out the dinosaurs. Even a mini-roid, the size of a Thornton Park bungalow, would flatten Orlando. It could happen today, tomorrow or in 1,000 years.
Let me explain in scientific terms.
Pretend you are Planet Earth. Your journey through the solar system is akin to driving down State Road 436. The asteroids are the text-messaging teenagers blasting through red lights — mindless, unpredictable and undirected.
They are mass multiplied by speed, just waiting for a collision to convert them to force.
This is one reason why Obama wants to scuttle the moon landing and send Buck Rogers rock hopping instead. At least that offers some justification for adding billions to the national debt. We’re going to save the world. Think Bruce Willis in Armageddon.
Going to the moon is maybe a 20-year gig.
Saving the world is the never-ending journey.
The National Research Council is on board. It just put out a report called “Defending Planet Earth: Near-Earth Object Surveys and Hazard Mitigation Strategies.” It calls for more spending to locate asteroids and to figure out how to stop them.
To continue reading this story: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-04-19/news/os-mike-thomas-obama-asteroids-042010-20100419_1_gravitational-tractor-big-asteroids-moon