Asteroid Threat : Defending Our Planet from Deadly Near-earth Objects (9781616149147) (27 page)

At the same time, humanity should spread out by starting settlements first on the Moon and then beyond it. The strategy should be inherently positive, which is to say to explore new
worlds and settle where we can, to realize our full potential as a species that is an integral part of this Solar System. Exploration is fundamentally important for nourishing the spirit as well as for providing the basis for homesteading new worlds. Spreading out should not be undertaken as an alternative to extinction or suffering in an abominable environment, which drove Osepok away, but as a supremely rewarding adventure in its own right, spiritually, aesthetically, and physically. And asteroids can be an asset as well as a threat and are therefore wonderful, exciting, and potentially profitable places to explore and settle. Besides being dangerous when they get too close, they are an inherently valuable resource, which shows that Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's little prince had it right after all.

The meteor that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, as seen in this rare photograph, injured more than 1,400 people and did extensive structural damage.

A view of the meteor before it exploded over Chelyabinsk. The long smoke trail led some in the area to believe it was an errant ballistic missile. (Photo courtesy of Konstantin Kudinov.)

After a long search, a chunk of the Chelyabinsk meteor was found and pulled out of Lake Chebarkul for detailed study. (Photo used by permission of Alexander Firsov for AP Photo.)

The nearly mile-wide Meteor Crater in Arizona, accessed by the long road in the foreground, attracts many tourists who are fascinated by Earth's being the target of a potential Doomsday impactor. As late as 1945, the US Geological Survey did not believe that the crater was made by an impactor because there are no fragments. (They had disintegrated.) Some thought that it is an extinct volcano. (Photo courtesy of Meteor Crater, Northern Arizona, USA.)

A realistic view of the Sentinel infrared telescope's position from which it is supposed to watch for threatening near-Earth objects. The telescope is in its orbit at the far left; the Sun is at the center, followed by Venus and, to the far right, Earth. (Image courtesy of Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp.)

An overview diagram of the Sentinel infrared telescope's position in a Venus-like orbit from which it is supposed to watch the region around Earth for potentially dangerous asteroids and comets. (Image courtesy of Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp.)

In a space first, the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa (peregrine falcon) landed on this asteroid, 25143 Itokawa, in 2005, collected tiny samples, and returned them to Earth. (Photo © Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency [JAXA].)

433 Eros is a 21.4-mile-long near-Earth asteroid that was photographed by the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft, which landed on it for a close-up inspection. The craters show that 433 Eros has taken its own hits. (Photo from NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.)

Washington, DC, the light area within the circle, would have been obliterated by the meteor that exploded over Tunguska, Russia. (Photo courtesy of Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp.)

The circle shows the area of New York and New Jersey that would have been devastated by the Tunguska blast. Millions would have been killed. (Photo courtesy of Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp.)

Clark R. Chapman, a senior scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, has been at the forefront of those advocating an active, integrated planetary-defense system. (Photo © Carles Ribas [Ediciones EL PAÍS]. All rights reserved.)