NASA recognizes that lacks the means to discover all the … – 20minutos.es

NASA selects up to 96 ideas’ promising “against asteroids. (NASA)

NASA does not comply with mandated by the Congress of the United States mission find the 90% of near-Earth asteroids and potentially dangerous over 140 meters in diameter, said the inspector general of the agency. The news comes despite a 10-fold increase in the annual budget of NASA for this purpose during the past five years, from $ 4 million in 2009 to 40 in 2014-called ” Near-Earth objects, “or NEOs, move within about 45 million miles from Earth.

Identified only about 10% of all asteroids 140 meters and larger The agency efforts are poorly coordinated, managed and under-staffed, according to A 32-page report called NASA’s efforts to identify near-Earth objects and mitigate hazards , conducted by the Inspector General of the space agency, Paul Martin.

“ NASA estimates that it has identified only about 10% of all asteroids 140 meters and bigger, “Martin wrote. “Given the current pace and resources, NASA has stated that it will comply with the objective of identifying 90% of these objects in 2020.” An integrated one-person office handles a “conglomerate unstructured research that are not well integrated supervision and lack of overall program objectives and milestones for monitoring progress,” says the report.

NASA has found 95% of the potentially most destructive largest asteroids , which are approximately 1 kilometer or more in diameter.

about 66 million years ago, an object 10 kilometers wide hit what is now the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico, causing global climate change that is believed to have carried the end of the dinosaurs and most other living species at that time.

More recently, a fragment of a asteroid estimated at only 18 meters in diameter exploded over Chelyabinsk , Russia , February 15, 2013 By exploiting friction with the atmosphere, an explosion occurred that corresponded to the energy released by 30 atomic bombs, causing major damage to the area. More than 1,000 people were injured by flying debris. “Recent research suggests that the events of Chelyabinsk type occur every 30 to 40 years ,” says the Office of the Inspector General, qie agreja most impact occurs in the ocean and not in areas populated

since 1998., NASA has spent about $ 100 million in programs to find, evaluate and mitigate the potentially threatening space objects . Until July 2014, the agency has discovered about 11,230 NEOs, including 862 of the largest asteroids. That figure includes only 10% of smaller asteroids near at least 140 meters wide , well below the goal of the agency to find 90% in 2020, according to the report.

The report makes five recommendations for reinforce efforts to detect asteroids NASA, including the addition of at least four to six employees to help manage the program and project coordination with other American and international agencies and private finance initiatives.