Collision+Course+3

The Earth has been pummeled by comets, asteroids and meteorites since its formation. Impacts from such objects will inevitably happen in the future - and the consequences for life on Earth could be disastrous. Risk Assesment data on asteoroid impacts *NEO = Near Earth Object (asteroid or comet) (the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was equal to 13,000 tonnes of TNT or 0.013 megatonnes)
 * Recommendations: **
 * Asteroid Diameter (km) || Estimated Number of NEOs* || Impact Probability(once per number of years) || Impact Energy (Megatonnes of TNT#) || Crater Size (km) ||
 * 0.001 (1 metre) || 10,000,000 || 100 || 0.1 || 0.01 (10m) ||
 * 0.1 (100m) || 100,000 || 10,000 || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">10 || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">1 ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">1 || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">1,000 || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">100,000 || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">10,000 || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">10 ||
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">10 || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">10 || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">1,000,000 || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">1,000,000 || <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">100 ||
 * 1) 1 megatone of TNT = 1,000,000 tonnes of high explosive

Spaceguard: <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Funding: <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> With proper funding and instruments, equipments, and supervision; Earth could avoid what would seem the inevitable crash of a comet or an asteroid. We recommend that the larger powers start to fund to such a centre so we can have more information; because if such an event were to happen, it could have devastating effects socially, politically, and environmentaly. This space centre would be able o detect an event before it happened and most likely be able to evacuate sucessfully causing little harm.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Spacewatch programme at Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona has shown that NEOs can be detected at some distance from Earth
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">With larger telescopes the range of detection would be ipmroved changing spacewatch to spaceguard
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Spaceguard would be a system of six 2.5 metre telescopes. [[image:jp_telescope_web1.jpg width="262" height="192" align="right"]]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Calculatons by David Morrison suggest that these telescopes could monitor 6000 square degrees of sky each month
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">After 25 years they should have detected 90% of near Earth asteroids of 1km diameter or greater
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Spaceguard Survey would give us much more acurate data about small objects in the inner Solar System
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">It might also detect a meteoroid which is on collision course with our home planet and give us the opportunity to avert global disaster
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">The concstruction of the six telescopes and centre would cost around $50 million dollars and would take about 5 years to build
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">An additional $10 million per year would be needed to run the telescopes and process the data
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Because Spaceguard has global implications, it seems a prime canditate for interational coorperation and funding from, for example, Europe, America, and Japan.

__ Page 1 __ Page 2 Page 3