Protecting Earth: Governments Finally Getting Serious
The timing could be better, because Dec 2012 is only 2.5 years away, but better late than never!
Last month, Representative Dana Rohrabacher (R – CA) introduced the new bill before Congress, H.R. 5587, titled: “To establish a United States Commission on Planetary Defense and for other purposes.”
The commission will investigate the role of the United States in identifying NEOs (Near-Earth Objects), and their capabilities for neutralising any potential impacts. The budget is a pitiful $2 million, and has me wondering why Congress is even needed to debate the worthiness of it. Most scientists working in this field would tell you that there is no doubt about what is required – a huge amount of money to be spent ASAP. We have the capability to protect our planet, and so far we are sitting on our hands…
Meanwhile over at Space Daily is a report on a meeting in Germany attended by experts from 25 countries, discussing the risks we face from our Sun:
“Imagine trying to monitor Earth’s oceans with a small number of buoys. You’d miss a lot. That’s the situation we’re in now with the ‘ocean of space,’” says Guhathakurta.
China is about to contribute a space-buoy known as “KuaFu,” named after a giant in Chinese mythology who wished to capture the sun. Kuafu will be located at the L1 Lagrange point where it will sample the solar wind upstream from Earth.
“We’re putting KuaFu at a strategic point in space,” says Wu. “The solar wind at L1 is an important input to many science models of the sun-Earth interaction.”
When KuaFu launches it will join a growing international fleet of spacecraft dedicated to heliophysics. NASA, the European Space Agency, the Russian Federal Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, JAXA and China are all making significant contributions.
And just in time…
If forecasters are correct, the solar cycle will peak during the years around 2013. And while it probably won’t be the biggest peak on record, human society has never been more vulnerable.
The basics of daily life-from communications to weather forecasting to financial services-depend on satellites and high-tech electronics. A 2008 report by the National Academy of Sciences warned that a century-class solar storm could cause billions in economic damage.
Preparing for a “solar Katrina,” launching a new science, harnessing the talents of scientists around the globe: “These are just a few of our goals for this week’s meeting,” says Guhathakurta.
As outlined in the bill, the purposes of the commission would be to:
- Determine capabilities of United States Government entities, nongovernment organizations, foreign governments and entities, and international bodies to detect, characterize, and neutralize potentially dangerous Near Earth Objects;
- Identify and evaluate roles and responsibilities of United States Government entities to detect, characterize, and neutralize potentially dangerous NEOs;
- Determine United States effectiveness in leading international efforts to detect, characterize, and neutralize potentially dangerous NEOs;
- Build upon United States Government and foreign analyses, studies, and assessments, without duplicating efforts, to determine current and required NEO characterization and mitigation capabilities;
- Identify and report on technology development required to provide effective planetary defense from dangerous NEOs; and
- Investigate and report to the President and Congress on its findings, conclusions, and recommendations for corrective measures that can be taken to provide planetary defense.
Meanwhile at New Scientist (June 23, 2010), Russian scientists figure that solar storms could affect some previously un-thought-of human activities. Even a minor storm could cause railway signals to go haywire, and oil pipelines to rust so much that they may leak – especially when you get closer to the poles, regions which have less protection from the Sun.
Relatively minor space storms now appear to be behind a range of mysterious mishaps – railway signals malfunctioning in Archangel province in north-western Russia, for example, between 2000 and 2005. A study led by Eugenia Eroshenko of the Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation in Troitsk, Russia, examined episodes when signals turned red for minutes or even hours though the track ahead was clear, then spontaneously reverted to green.
Eroshenko’s team found that 16 malfunctions of this sort observed between 2000 and 2005 coincided with space storms (Advances in Space Research, DOI: 10.1016/j.asr.2010.05.017). “We were surprised by such a clear correlation,” Eroshenko says
We all remember the Toyota brake malfunctions that resulted in recalls. Well other auto companies, both US and abroad have had similar malfunctions. This in my opinion is not due to shotty engineering or poor materials in electronics devises. More than one University has reported that Electro-Magnetic energy can cause such malfuntions in Toyota products from 1996-present. To me this suggests that the Suns activity is linked to these malfuctions. IMO to use an electronicly controlled accellerator on any vehicle is a mistake, i would suggest to an auto maker to go make to manual contolled accelleraters, and vaccume actuated cruise control devises. That is why i own a pre 1974 vehicle, just in case a major CME comes along.