The B612 Foundation Logo. Image credit B612 Foundation
If you’re like most people, you probably don’t sit around worrying about when the next “big one” will strike. You go about your daily lives while maybe occasionally looking up to see the International Space Station when its orbit takes it over your area or there’s a particularly interesting meteor shower. You realize that there’s a better chance of dying in a car accident on the way to work tomorrow morning than dying of an asteroid falling on your head.
However, the threat still exists and most experts agree that the next “big one” is not a matter of if. It’s a matter of when. You can’t count on world governments to actually do something about the threat. Not quickly, anyhow. So it’s up to private citizens like the people behind the B612 Foundation to do something about it.
Ed Lu Talks About The Sentinel Mission
The B612 Foundation is currently raising funds for their Sentinel mission, which will put an infrared telescope into solar orbit to track asteroids and identify those that pose a danger to Earth. By itself, a telescope isn’t going to stop the asteroids. However, most plans for stopping the dangerous ones from colliding with Earth call for early detection. The Sentinel telescope will prove to the most cynical doubter that some of those big asteroids that are still around from the formation of our solar system could be on a collision course for Earth.
Can it be done? Well, like most good things in life and space exploration, there is a price tag. That asteroid probably will land on your head before members of Congress decide to divert money away from their pet projects to fund a telescope like this. If you are interested in helping protect Earth from rogue asteroids, you can help fund this project and get some nifty space collectibles out of the deal by bidding on space-flown items from Apollo 9, the Space Shuttle program and the International Space Station, donated by Expedition 7’s Ed Lu and Apollo 9’s Rusty Schweickart.
The “Big One” is going to happen if something isn’t done to stop it. Simple as that. As people like Ed Lu and Rusty Schweickart realized, if you want something done, you can’t rely on a government bureaucracy to do it. You have to do it yourself. So they’re going to build the Sentinel telescope using private donations and you can be in on it by checking out these collectibles with the sale price going to the B612 Foundation.
Learn More About The B612 Foundation