New Scientist has a report about Canadians efforts to help safeguard the planet against massive space rocks that could turn humanity into modern-day dinosaurs.
“Canada will launch a suitcase-sized satellite in 2009 to spot potentially dangerous asteroids near Earth’s orbit. It will be the first space mission devoted to hunting asteroids and may help find ones that are difficult to spot from the ground…The suitcase-sized Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite (NEOSSat) weighs just 60 kilograms and will cost a mere $10 million to build and launch.”
The orbiting satellite will supplement efforts by scientists on the ground to identify asteroids that cross the Earth’s orbit. Some of the objects are difficult to spot because of the distorting effects of the atmosphere.
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