NASA Reactivating Spacecraft to Hunt for Asteroids

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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May 9, 2000
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I suppose this could be classified as recycling at its finest. NASA is recalling the retired Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer back into service for a three year near-Earth asteroid search mission. Why is it that when NASA gets a sense of urgency I get a bad feeling about this? :D

"The search took on a note of urgency after a small asteroid blasted through the skies above Chelyabinsk, Russia, in February 2013 and exploded with 20- to 30 times the force of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. More than 1,500 people were injured by flying glass and debris.
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I guess they agreed that one of those in a major city would make for at least a dozen hollywood movies based around it. And that a toll in the hundred-thousand's. "The chances are so low though!"
 
lilbabycat said:
I guess they agreed that one of those in a major city would make for at least a dozen hollywood movies based around it. And that a toll in the hundred-thousand's. "The chances are so low though!"
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Yeah,that's what the dinosaurs said. :eek:
 
Megalith said:
And it was turned off because?...
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It ran out of coolant, something that they knew would happen and was part of the mission's design(in order to make the observations they were making, you had to keep the telescope very cold and this uses up coolant over time and you can only send up so much).
 
Wouldn't it be cheaper to just wait for an asteroid to come to us so we can see it up close instead of searching for them? Once in a while, they drop by so I think looking for them is sort of a wasted effort.
 
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