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Space Situational Awareness Mission same as Asteroid Defense Mission

 

On 7 February 2000, Worden ignited a minor firestorm within the NEO community when he submitted an essay proposing DoD leadership of international efforts to detect, study and (if necessary) defend against NEOs to the Cambridge-Conference Network electronic newsgroup.v Not meant as an official policy statement of the U.S government or the Department of the Air Force, Worden’s personal view was that while identification of 1 km asteroids seemed to be progressing at a sufficiently rapid (indeed, accelerating) pace, governments and astronomers were neglecting the 100 meter or "Tunguska Class" objects that strike up to several times per century. Worden couched the challenge in terms of space situational awareness, noting that the U.S. space community, particularly the DoD and NASA, are beginning to understand the importance of identifying and tracking virtually everything in Earth orbit in order to protect peaceful operations there, now and in the future. The ground and space-based tools used to achieve this close-range awareness would also serve to greatly improve detection of NEOs much smaller than mentioned by either Spaceguard or Shoemaker, but still capable of causing considerable death and destruction on Earth.

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France, Martin E.B. "Planetary Defense: Eliminating the Giggle Factor." Air & Space Power Journal. (August 2000). [ 1 reference ]

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