European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 14, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Holy asteroid who s got the space blaster scientists plot a defense for killer meteor by Kathy Sawyer the Washington Post Chicken Little is suddenly trendy. Serious astronomers have convinced members of Congress that the sky is bound to fall sooner or later in the form of a doomsday space Rock with Earth s name on it. Leading weapons scientists Are offering to nuke any such intruder and save the planet. This is not tabloid fiction. It is the topic of two technical reports commissioned by Congress for delivery this month with action plans for asteroid detection and defense. One report Calls for $50 million in new telescopes to accelerate the Hunt for the terminator Rock among the maybe 2,000 Mountain sized asteroids with trajectories that Cross Earth a path. The second outlines possible responses including a standing International ground based Armada of 10 missiles tipped with nuclear warheads big enough to blow anything incoming off course or destroy it. The reports were produced at two workshops that brought together astronomers weapons makers and others convened by Nasa at the direction of the House science space and technology committee. There is no record of a human Ever being killed by a space Rock but Many scientists accept the once revolutionary theory that some 65 million years ago an extraterrestrial object wiped out the dinosaurs. The Impact of an object about 6 Miles wide on the Yucatan Peninsula scientists say exploded with Many times the Force of the worlds entire nuclear Arsenal this blasted enough dust into the upper atmosphere to blot out the Sun worldwide for months affecting Plant growth and the food Chain. Asteroid experts estimate the probability that Earth will collide with a space Rock at 4-in-1 billion in any Given year. According to another calculation the Chance it will happen in the lifetime of people now living is 1-in-1,000. It could be centuries from now or thousands of centuries a or next month. And the damage would depend on the object s velocity size location of Impact and other variables the threat is mainly from Large asteroids. They Are the heavyweights in the family of rocks and ice balls known As Quot near Earth objects Quot that along with tiny meteoroids form the perpetual cosmic Avalanche of primeval rubble in which the planets move. Asteroids a mostly big rocks a Are believed to Circle the Sun by the millions in a conveyor Belt Between Mars and Jupiter some break free to slalom through the inner solar system on eccentric but very predictable orbits that Cross Earth s path. But it was not until the Early 1970s that anyone began a systematic search for those that might hit Earth. In recent years new technology has enabled the few Small teams of trackers to greatly accelerate their rate of discovery. Eugene Shoemaker of the . Geological Survey in Arizona who formed the first such team says trackers have identified about 110 asteroids larger than a half mile in diameter that Cross Earth a orbit the largest about 25 Miles across. But he and others estimate the total number of larger asteroids on potential collision paths at 1,000 to 2,000. He said there is Likely an equal number of undiscovered comets a smaller but faster ice Ball cousins of the asteroids a that could menace the Home planet. Quot the Odds of any one of these hitting us is very Small Quot a Small asteroid crashes into Ono almost 10 to lids its size a d shatters into fragments. Shoemaker said. But because the stakes Range from localized destruction to the end of civilization As we know it Quot it seems Worth paying attention  most space rocks Are Small enough to Burn up or explode High in the atmosphere. Most asteroid Hunting astronomers want to focus on the much rarer objects Large enough to have global consequences such As mass notional too graph Stan a Ion because of worldwide crop failure. The thresh old size for an object that could do that kind of Daman be is believed to be in the Range of half mile to 1 vie Milesh diameter. Astronomer David Morrison of Nasa s Ames research Center in California who favors Early detection chaired the first a workshop. The result is a 50-Page report that he said Calls for construction of six modest telescopes with advanced computer detectors. At a Cost of about $10 million a year for operations these instruments could detect 90 percent of the potentially threatening larger objects within about 20 years he said. Quot our philosophy is you take a Complete census of larger objects track their orbits and calculate whether they Are a danger a Morrison said. Quot if you find one that is. Then you have decades or even centuries to plan a response. You done to need to Rush out and build missiles and  some astronomers who want merely to study the problem express alarm that proposals to Quot shoot Back Quot with nukes maybe taken seriously. Controversy erupted after scientists and engineers Many with expertise in nuclear weaponry and Quot Star wars Quot defense technology a including Edward Teller Quot father of the Hydrogen bomb a gathered at the second Nasa workshop in january at los Alamos . According to Nasa s John rather who headed that workshop the group held a brainstorming session on potential ways to deflect or destroy a full Range of potentially dangerous cosmic flak. These included pushing asteroids around with a laser beam using a Small asteroid to Stop a big one and deploying a Neutron bomb. Rather said the use of nuclear weapons is Quot not something Nasa is comfortable recommending Quot and should be left to the Energy department. But he dismissed As Quot preposterous Quot suggestions by some scientists that there is a or. Strange love Type plot by Quot mad weapons scientists Quot to take up with asteroid defense where the cold War left off. A key congressional aide said the killer Rock problem could be dealt with for Little Money using existing technology. Quot the main problem we have to get past before we can do anything is that the Issue has this very High Giggle  space plane stuck on the drawing Boardly Marcia Dunn a aerospace writer thousands of researchers Are investing their Energy and Hope in a futuristic spaceship that takes off like a plane and accelerates to 25 times the Speed of sound. Space laboratories space factories space military posts space Transfer stations for people headed to the Moon and Mars space hotels for space tourists a this is the not so Distant future envisioned by scientists and engineers designing space planes. Quot it s Only up to your imagination of what it could be Quot said Jim Arrington Nasa Deputy program director for the proposed National Aero space plane. It boils Down though to what governments Are willing and Able to spend. Quot what s disheartening is the congressional action. The funding goes up and Down Quot Arrington said at a recent International space plane conference in Orlando Fla. Right now funding is Down Way Down for America s space plane program. Nasa and the defense department requested $304 million this fiscal year which began in october. They got $205 million from Congress the lowest amount since 1987, the second year of the joint program. The bulk a $200 million a came from the Pentagon s budget. To save Money the program work Force is being reduced and the research phase is being extended half a year to october 1993, possibly longer. That pushes Back the first flight of an experimental single stage to orbit plane the x-30, from around 1997 to closer to the turn of the Century provided the White House agrees to proceed. Previously a decision on whether to build and test two x-30s had been expected in april 1993, based on the technology developed. Financing is also a stumbling Block in Europe where a joint British russian project and a possible German French product Are both stalled by More pressing Money needs. The United slates in the forefront of space plane research is determined to go it alone at least for now. The director of the National Aero space plane program Robert Barthelemy. Expects it will Cost $5 billion to $10 billion and take seven to nine years to build and test two x-30s, if testing goes Well and Money and presidential approval Are forthcoming the first operational Craft could be carrying people and cargo into orbit by 2003 or 2005. Quot what captures you about this is the ability for folks like you and i in the year 2003, to go up to an Airport buy a ticket and Fly into space and doing that very affordably and routinely Quot Barthelemy said. The goal is cheap and fast space transportation on a fully reusable Craft. Quot there s a potential to reduce the Cost of putting something into space by a Factor of 10&Quot a $500 a Pound instead of the current $5,000 a Pound Barthelemy said. Quot the army it takes to refurbish it the shuttle and the time it takes that s what really costs  researchers Are borrowing some from the shuttle the Way it glides Back to Earth for instance. New technology is needed however for a spaceship to take off horizontally from an air plane runway and withstand a searing 20-minute climb through the atmosphere. F a companies Are working on the x-30 design in a unique Union forged a year ago. About 2,000 people nation. He Are assigned full time to the program which is based at Wright Patterson fab in Dayton Ohio. So far $1 51> on has been spent. In blueprints the x-30 is a sleek 160 feet Long and 50 feet wide about the size of a dc-10 or 727. Much of it is a Hydrogen tank the Craft would weigh 300,000 pounds to 350,000 pounds when fuelled. The shuttle in contrast weighs 4.5 million pounds at liftoff. The x-30 would take off with a few Hundred thousand pounds of thrust and accelerate to 17,500 Mph the Speed needed to reach orbit. That s Mach 25, or 25 times the Speed of sound. No windows Are planned because of the intense atmospheric heat two pilots would use electronic to cameras to see outside. The cargo Bay could hold Small payloads weighing 20,000 to 30,000 pounds. Four time space flier Vance Brand who is moving from shuttle piloting to space plane management sees the space plane As an Orbital hot Rod that could open Quot that Region Between space and where air planes  Quot we be reached a maturity in the space program where we need different types of vehicles for different  Brand said. Quot you might regard the shuttle As a pickup the heavy lift unmanned Booster As a full size truck and the space plane As a sports  Page 14 b the stars and stripes tuesday pal h 1992life in space sex potatoes and clashing ego by Hoyt Harwell the associated press space sex Irish potatoes on Mars astronauts without the right stuff those Are among the out of this world topics launched recently at the International conference on life support and biospheric at the University of Alabama. Conjugal spaceflight is on the horizon As America looks to space stations on Mars or the Moon missions that could last years a in the coming Century. Regina North a behavioural scientist at Nasa s Johnson space Center in Houston says the Agency is about to miss a Golden Opportunity to conduct its first research on sex in Zero Gravity. Astronauts Mark Lee 39, and Jan Davis 37, who were married last year Are scheduled to be among seven people aboard an August space shuttle Mission. Quot we have this incredible Opportunity and there is no Experiment planned Quot she said Quot this could be an Experiment like no other life science Experiment we could Monitor heart rates and determine what Are the physiological problems that microgravity presents Quot Quot Nasa does t want to talk about sex but i m thinking about that Quot she said. Quot it s a very Puritan  North concedes that spaceflight is so action packed thai taking time out for Romance might be a problem they Are using All their libido to do experiments. They re Busy almost 24 hours a  the Only data available on sex in space was a study of rats by soviet cosmonauts she said. Although sex might not be High on Nasa s list Lood is for extended missions astronauts would grow some of their own food. Ted w. Tibbitts of the University of Wiscons Madison told the two Day conference that his research shows Irish potatoes would fare Well. They grow easily in sterile environments Are nutritious and can be prepared Many ways. Quot i recommend their use in space not Only for food but for oxygen Quot Tibbitts said. With Nasa working on life support systems for Long stays on Mars and the Moon the Agency might have to change its standards for astronauts whose Gung to attitudes a and egos a were depicted in the Book and movie the right stuff. The Rigours of a Long stay in space can Lead to physical and psychological disorders in people who Lack patience. North said. The different function will require a different set of strengths Quot the current shuttle astronauts Are perfect for their current role Quot she said. Quot they Are pilots they Are self sufficient they love themselves they do their jobs but exactly what made them Good for Short missions May not be Good for Long  the stars and stripes b Page 15