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Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, December 19, 2005 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

Rusty Schweickart

"Protecting The Earth From Near-Earth Asteroid Impacts: A Status Report"

ABSTRACT -- The Earth has repeatedly been hit by near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) throughout its history. These impacts have both enabled and shaped the evolution of life on the planet. Future impacts, however, threaten to cause great human suffering, the disruption of society and perhaps even the destruction of civilization. Fortunately humanity has developed technologies which, if brought into operation, can prevent such future devastation. Unfortunately there exists no agency of the US government or any other government on Earth with the assigned responsibility to provide this public safety. While billions of dollars are spent to mitigate the after-effects of other natural disasters, this natural hazard is the only one which can be both predicted ahead of time and actually prevented. Yet no money is being spent on providing this protection for the public. NASA now has an invitation from the Congress of the US to advise it of what should be done to remedy this situation. It should seize this opportunity to recommend to the Congress that responsibility for this public service be assigned within the US Government, and to identify the technical developments needed to protect the world's public using space technology.

SPEAKER -- Rusty Schweickart became an astronaut in 1963 in the third group selected by NASA. He flew on Apollo 9 as the Lunar Module Pilot and was the first to step outside a spacecraft without a life support umbilical to the spacecraft. This 10-day mission in Earth orbit in 1969 was the initial checkout of the Lunar Module. He was subsequently commander of the backup crew for the first Skylab mission. He received NASA's Exceptional Service Medal for his leading role in saving the mission after its thermal shield/meteor bumper ripped off during launch. Schweickart was the founder and president of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE), the profession organization of astronauts and cosmonauts. As ASE president he oversaw the publication of the Association's first book, The Home Planet (1988). From 1977 to 1985 Schweickart served in California state government, first as Assistant to Governor Jerry Brown and subsequently as Commissioner of Energy. Schweickart Chaired the California Energy Commission from 1979 to 1984. He is currently Chairman of the Board of the B612 Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to protecting the future of humankind by developing and demonstrating the capability to deflect asteroids from Earth impact.



Engineering Colloquium home page: https://ecolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov