“What an awesome time it is to be a planetary scientist” –Lori Glaze, NASA head of planetary science
First thing: breaking news. Kelly Fast, presenting for the NASA PDCO (Planetary Defense Coordination Office) claims meteorites have been reported from last week’s asteroid ‘impact’ last week’s asteroid ‘impact’ (such as it was). Of course, eager people, stoked by media alerts to watch for fireballs and exotic deliveries, might seize upon any unusual rock they come across- a “meteowrong,” we call it. Let’s see what professional inspection and laboratory testing says before we declare victory on this one incoming shot.
Fast also reports: not so fast these days. The rate of asteroid discovery has actually declined for 2023 versus prior year, just like 2022 declined. There are multiple possibilities here, none of which are very satisfying. Fear not, reader. This is all without Vera Rubin Obs (the- yes, THE asteroid discovery machine) begins system tests this year, and actual science ops next year.
Lindley Johnson, also from PDCO, and others brief us on the US planetary radar study, done by the Aerospace Corporation. Radar is highly valued for its ability to settle the natural uncertainties in the orbit of an asteroid, after it’s been discovered but before enough (optical) tracking has been done. The loss of Arecibo was certainly felt, but some other planetary-capable radars have carried on. The baselined future radar, in the Aerospace Corp. report? A bistatic system, where a transmitter is added to the Green Bank Telescope, and the Next-Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) is used as the receiver(s). The open question? What power level (transmitter capacity, and to an extent receive sensitivity) should be funded and deployed. The ability to reach out to a nontrivial radius (and thus, nontrivial number of asteroids) depends on what the radar fluxes turn out to be. A large radar has multiple use cases, and other applicants for radar time can do fine with a low(…ish) transmitter wattage.
Related to these dishes… Jeffrey Hayes gave a status update on NASA’s DSN (Deep Space Network)- the global system of antennas that NASA (and foreign partners) use to command, and downlink from, space missions. If this sounds ‘unsexy, Congress agrees, and hasn’t provided funding. Creaking along since the late ‘6os/early ’70s, the DSN could have a major failure- perhaps not an Arecibo, but not good- for the same reason. It’s just that old.
Much geekery followed on software tools, and mission archiving. If this sounds ‘unsexy, ‘ I DISagree. Planetary science is, for the most part, bit-starved, due to the long years between two missions. (Compare this to meteorite work: the data, on some level, comes to you.) Having bits get lost due to degrading tape reels- or effectively lost, when investigators can’t find stuff in a reasonable time- serves nobody.
Overall, the news from SBAG 30, Day 1 is- mostly- no news. We happen to be at a point in time where Lucy and Psyche are in quiet cruise, and Hera (and kin..) are under construction, while Hayabusa(s!), DART, OSIRIS-REx, etc. are yet filtering out the occasional paper with their findings. If there’s any takeaway from Tuesday’s community get-together, it’s that the failure of the United States government to pass legislation- you know, actually govern- will be felt in 2-4 years as a gap in our projects. A lack of funding per se is still better than a lack of funding knowledge. If we knew what the funding would be- even if it’s declining- then we could at least move forward with some plan. A legal limbo doesn’t even let us do planning.