Asteroid preparedness training

We give lip service to asteroid preparedness training, mainly because the government tells us to do the drill every year and send in the forms saying we've completed it.

What? Your company doesn't require it?

The interesting notion about space spending is that governments fund their space agencies, who have smart people sitting around deciding how that money can be spent wisely. At times, we watch helplessly as these agencies decide for us what is or isn't smart spending.

The Russians are apparently convinced (or at least one of them is) that the asteroid Apophis is a big enough risk in 2032 that a deflection is needed. NASA people, contacted for support on the matter, don't generally agree. The debate rages in the darkened hallways in little caves and tunnels in places where you need golf carts to reach.

It's maddening.

As it turns out, there are a lot of ways we can be brutalized by the scraps of space matter that come roaring across the horizons every so often. Anatoly Perminov has told Golos Rossii (Voice of Russia) that "hundreds of thousands" of people are in peril unless something is done about Apophis, which could come as close as ... well, hell ... your neighbor's apple trees.

But as a NASA guy said: "While Apophis is almost certainly not a problem, I am encouraged that the Russian science community is willing to study the various deflection options that would be available in the event of a future Earth threatening encounter by an asteroid."

It's comforting to know that I'll be well past my prime when this risk becomes real. I look forward to the moment. I hope the Russians get talked out of their plan to divert the little asteroid. There is so damned little these days that excites me.