“The Sky is Falling,” is an article about the threat to Earth by natural space objects. It’s in the current issue of the Atlantic Magazine; a magazine held in higher esteem than its circulation numbers would imply.
The author is Gregg Easterbrook, who writes and lectures about lots of subjects and is especially well known for his sports writing. In this piece he talks about Dallas Abbot’s discovery – the Earth gets significantly ‘hit’ by comets and asteroids much more often than anyone thought.
Easterbrook’s response: task NASA with this responsibility, replacing its now outmoded and valueless manned space program¹.
Here’s a 10 minute lecture on the subject from Easterbook. Very interesting.
¹ – Easterbrook and I agree on this wholeheartedly, but not on Global Warming, where I remain skeptical.
Couldn’t agree more re: manned flight. It’s highly expensive exploration- and it’s a 1960s Cold War leftover “can you top this” contest of technology.
We need space technology development to be practical. Preventing the cometary extinction of most of our planetary species would be quite practical.
Do you agree that robotic exploration of our nearest neighbors would prove fruitful? In your experience, have learnings from Mars’ surface and atmosphere exploration translated into better understanding of our planet?