Hunting Killer Asteroids

The National Academy of Sciences says NASA needs more money to find all the near-Earth objects that might crash into Earth. NASA, not surprisingly, agrees, saying it needs between $800 million and $1 billion more money to build the telescopes and other equipment necessary. In this day of billions in federal bailouts and stimulus plans, with seemingly little concern about budget balancing, the amount NASA cites would seem to be chump change-- especially given whaat could happen if we fail to find a killer rock in time to divert it.

The funding shortfall has come about because Congress played one of its favorite budgetary tricks. In 2005, Congress ordered NASA to find all dangerous objects in the near-Earth population by 2020, but did not fund the program. Members could thus honestly tell their constituents they voted to save the planet, even while refusing to make the hard policy choice involved in allocating scarce resources. Its called creating an unfunded mandate. State governments regularly complain about Congress using that policy device on them.

Having said that, apart from small programs undertaken by Canada and Germany, the U. S. is pursuing these objects on its own. There's no reason it should. The threat is global; the program to counter the threat, therefore, should also be global. Perhaps a first step in that direction could have other nations chipping in the extra $1 billion.