Sentinel’s Mission to Find 500,000 Near-Earth Asteroids

[phion]

Humankind lives in a cosmic shooting gallery. For evidence of that, we need look no further than the events of 15 February 2013. On that day, a medium-size asteroid was set to pass some 28,000 kilometers from Earth, unusually close and well within the orbits of geosynchronous satellites. Dubbed 2012 DA14, the rock was first spotted the previous year. Since then, astronomers had been eagerly anticipating the opportunity to take a closer look and measure such vitals as size, shape, and composition.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/satellites/sentinels-mission-to-find-500000-nearearth-asteroids

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Sounds like a good idea to me!