OFFICE OF COMMISSIONER EUDALY FINAL DRAFT: 2/20/19 30.01.088 Screening Criteria for Applicants for Dwelling Units. A. In addition to the protections set forth in the Act and Sections 30.01.085 and 30.01.087, the following procedures and guidelines apply to Landlords when screening an Applicant for residential tenancy in a Dwelling Unit (as defined in the Act). Definitions. For purposes of this chapter, unless otherwise defined herein, capitalized terms have the meaning set forth in the Act. a. Applicant: An applicant for a Dwelling Unit covered by the Act. b. Supplemental Evidence: Any written information in addition to the application, that the Applicant believes to be relevant to the Applicant's predicted performance as a tenant. c. Head(s) of Household: Person or persons listed on a lease as the party or parties responsible for paying the Rent. d. ADA Compliant: e. Occupancy Agreement: B.
Applications, Generally. a. First-come, First-served. 1. Completed applications must be received and processed on a first- come, first-served basis. 2. All completed applications must be time stamped to indicate the date and time that an Applicant submitted the application (the "Submission Date"). 3. For applications received during an advertised open application period, a Landlord must provide an Applicant with a written or electronic receipt within one (1) business day of the Submission Date that accurately reflects the Submission Date and assigns the Applicant a queue number. 4. A Landlord is exempt from the requirements of this subsection whenever a lottery system or coordinated access system is used to lease up new residential buildings with rent regulations of 80% AMI or lower. b. A Landlord must include the following with every application: 1. Notice to Applicants of the right to request a reasonable accommodation at any point before, during or after the application process; 2. Notice that a Landlord may not deny an application solely because of a reasonable accommodation request or because of the nature of the accommodation requested. 3. Notice to Applicants of their rights under this Section 30.01.088 by including a link to PHB's website and a printed copy of the notice that PHB creates. 4. A complete description of the applicable screening criteria. 5. An opportunity on the application for an Applicant to indicate their disability status.
c. A Landlord may only screen Head(s) of Household. Co-applicants that are not responsible for paying the Rent may be screened for criminal history and rental history (only for violation notices issued to the household for conduct of the coapplicant within the last year that demonstrates they created a hostile, unsafe, or harassing environment for other tenants or engaged in discriminatory conduct), pursuant to procedures and guidelines in this Section 30.01.088. d. May require co-applicants not responsible for paying the Rent to sign an Occupancy Agreement if the household application is approved. e. A Landlord that owns less than fifty (50) Dwelling Units within the City of Portland, may refuse acceptance of a completed application only if the Applicant has a verifiable pattern of Rental Agreement violations with the Landlord and the most recent of such Rental Agreement violations occurred within the last 365 days. f. Any Applicant that self-identifies as mobility challenged on an application within the first 8 hours of an open application period must be given first priority for any vacant Dwelling Unit that is advertised as ADA Compliant. g. Any application received earlier than the advertised open application period will be put in the queue immediately following the first 8 hours. If the Dwelling Unit is advertised as ADA Compliant, and the Applicant indicates as mobility challenged, they will still receive placement preference immediately following any other preference application received during the advertised open application period. D.
Advertisement of Dwelling Units. a. When publicly advertising for specific vacant Dwelling Units, a Landlord must specify an opening date and time when applications will be accepted and cannot accept applications for those specific units outside of the advertised period. b. Except as otherwise prevented from complying due to the format requirements of an advertising service, screening criteria required by a Landlord, or a website address to the criteria, must be included in any public advertisement for available Dwelling Units as well as included on the application. c. Except as otherwise prevented from complying due to the format requirements of an advertising service, all public advertisements must also include if the Dwelling Unit is ADA Compliant. d. When advertising newly vacant Dwelling Units, the open application period must be published at least 72 hours prior to the start of the open application period.
Identification. a. A Landlord must accept any of the following as forms of identification, or combination thereof, that verify the full name, date of birth, and picture of the applicant: 1. Valid Social Security Number (SSN Card); 2. Valid Permanent Resident Alien Registrations Receipt Card; 3. Immigrant Visa; 4. Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN); 5. Non-Immigrant Visa; 6. Any other government-issued identification; or 7. Any other non-government document or combination of documents that would allow verification of identity.
b. A Landlord may not reject an application as incomplete due to the lack of a Social Security Number (SSN). c. A Landlord may not inquire about the immigration status of an Applicant or require that any Applicant prove citizenship. F.
individualized assessment as described in Section H if they intend to deny the application based on criminal history. H.
Individualized Assessment. a. A Landlord that chooses not to adopt the threshold criteria as set forth in Section G, must conduct an individualized assessment before denying an Applicant for any criteria they have established. b. Any Applicant that believes that they may have barriers to any advertised screening criteria shall be allowed to provide, at the time of application submission, all Supplemental Evidence they believe provides a positive offset to the barriers. c. A Landlord has an obligation to consider any such Supplemental Evidence submitted by the Applicant including, but not limited to, the following: 1. Six or more consecutive months of job or income stability; 2. Completion of secondary education or job training programs; 3. Current enrollment in secondary education of job trainings programs; 4. Current probation or parole oversight; 5. Certificate of Good Standing; 6. Current payment plan towards credit debt; 7. Completion of Rent Well or another tenant education program; 8. Six or more consecutive months of positive rental payments within the last year; 9. Completion of credit counseling; 10. Current participation in credit counseling; 11. Current participation with a legal or non-profit advocate to clear past collections; 12. Legitimate explanation of lack of verifiable credit history. 13. The presence of domestic violence as contributing factor to rental issues of concern; 14. Current payment plan toward outstanding debts owed previous landlord; 15. Current case management or peer support services; or 16. Any other evidence that the Applicant believes has a tangible impact to the specific barriers identified in an Applicant's history. d. If a Landlord receives the following types of Supplemental Evidence, a Landlord should assume that the presentation of such Supplemental Evidence is a request for a reasonable accommodation under the Fair Housing Act. An applicant reserves the right to use the following information as a request for Individualized Assessment as well: 1. Completion of drug or alcohol treatment; 2. Current enrollment in a drug or alcohol treatment program; 3. Completion of psychological counseling; 4. Current participation in psychological counseling; or 5. Current case management or peer support services related to disability or mental health. e. In addition, a Landlord must consider the information from the individualized assessment and Supplemental Evidence in light of the following before denying an Applicant: 1. The nature and severity of the barriers; 2. The number and type of the barriers; 3. The time that has elapsed since the date the barriers occurred; and 4. The age of the individual at the time the barrier occurred.
Appeals a. An Applicant that is denied for residential tenancy by a Landlord using the threshold criteria as described in Section G must have the opportunity to appeal that denial directly to the Landlord based on: 1. Incomplete or inaccurate information identified during the screening process, or 2. Additional supplemental evidence. b. An Applicant must be allowed 30 days, from the date the denial was issued, to request an appeal and submit all evidence related to the appeal. c. A Landlord is not required to hold the Dwelling Unit for the Applicant during the pendency of the appeal process. d. If the appeal results in the denial being overturned, a Landlord must give the Applicant preference for future vacancies on the same property (with similar screening criteria and similar income ratio) if they apply within the first 4 hours of an open application period, for up to 3 months from the date of the original appeal determination. 1. If a denial is successfully appealed, a Landlord must provide a dated letter, signed by the Landlord, documenting the successful appeal that includes specifics about which properties qualify for the preference. 2. An Applicant who receives a letter of a successful appeal must attach that letter to future applications with the same Landlord to receive preference, for up to 3 months from the date of the original appeal determination. 3. An Applicant who successfully appeals a denial cannot be charged a screening fee for future applications with the same Landlord, for up to 3 months from the date of the original appeal determination. 4. If more than one Applicant provides a letter of a successful appeal during an open application period, the Applicants will receive preference in order of the dates on the letter, with oldest date getting first preference. 5. If there is a conflict between an appeals preference and an accessible unit preference as described in Section C, the accessible unit preference is first, only superseded by an Applicant with both an accessible unit preference and an appeals preference. 6. If an Applicant applies with an appeal preference, the Landlord may require the Applicant to self-certify that no conditions have changed since their original application. e. A Landlord has the discretion to also maintain a wait list and contact preference applicants (in the order their appeal letter is dated), before advertising a vacant Dwelling Unit to the general public.
Denials-General a. An application can be denied without a Landlord first conducting an individualized assessment when an Applicant does not meet basic criteria requirements such as incomplete application, identification, income, or an Applicant has purposefully withheld or misrepresented required information. b. If an Applicant applies as part of a family or group, a Dwelling Unit can be denied to that Applicant individually but not the family or group as a whole unless they no longer qualify for the income ratio or occupancy standards.
a. When denying an application based on threshold criteria as described in Section G, a Landlord must provide a written "Notice of Adverse Action" compliant with ORS……..to the Applicant within two weeks of the denial. b. A Notice of Adverse Action can be provided to the Applicant by either a Landlord or a screening company. c. A second denial after an appeal as described in Section I can be written in a manner at the discretion of the Landlord. L.
Denials-Individualized Assessment a. When denying an application after performing an individualized assessment as described in Section H, a Landlord must provide a written "Notice of Denial" to the Applicant within two weeks of the denial that includes: 1. The specific adverse information that matches the screening criteria information as provided with the application, including detailed information received from a rental reference if it is the basis of the denial; 2. The Supplemental Evidence, if any, that the Landlord considered and whether it influenced the decision of the Landlord to deny the application; 3. An explanation of the legitimate, non-discriminatory business interest of the Landlord that justify denial of the application, and how the Supplemental Evidence provided did not address the interest. b. A Notice of Denial can only be issued to the Applicant by the Landlord.
Additional Deposit. a. A Landlord may request an additional security deposit as set forth in Section 30.01.087 as an alternative to issuing a Notice of Adverse Action or a Notice of Denial. b. To request an additional security deposit, a Landlord must provide a written "Notice of Conditional Approval" to the Applicant that contains the same information as required in a Notice of Adverse Action or a Notice of Denial (depending on the screening process used) and additionally contains the specific amount being requested as well as the ability for an Applicant to choose a payment plan as set forth in Section 30.01.087. c. If a Landlord requests an Additional Deposit as a condition of offsetting a low income ratio, the Landlord does not need to issue a Notice of Conditional Approval but must follow the code as set forth in Section 30.01.087.
Screening Fees a. A Landlord must return a screening fee, or communicate approval or denial of residential tenancy, to an Applicant within two weeks of the final determination of the application. b. If using a professional screening company exclusively, the screening fee charged by the Landlord cannot be more than what is charged by the screening company. c. If using a professional screening company in addition to screening work by the Landlord, fees cannot exceed 25% above what is charged by the screening company. d. If a Landlord screens independently without the use of a professional screening company, fees cannot exceed 10% above what is charged by the average professional screening company in the Portland-Metro area.
a. An Applicant that experiences disabilities cannot be denied housing based on a denial of reasonable modification alone. b. If an Applicant's modification request is denied, the Applicant must be allowed 24 hours to request an alternative modification that meets their needs. c. If the second modification request is denied, the Applicant must be allowed another 24 hours to request an alternative modification that meets their needs. d. If no reasonable modification can be made in the Dwelling Unit the Applicant applied for, then the Applicant may still accept the Dwelling Unit if they meet the eligibility criteria. P.
Exemptions. a. Any Dwelling Unit that is subject to a partnership or referral agreement between a Landlord and a non-profit service provider or government agency working to place low income or vulnerable tenants into housing is exempted from this Section. b. Any Dwelling Unit not rented or advertised to the general public, (including online platforms with or without a fee), are exempted from this Section. c. Any Dwelling Unit otherwise complying with state or federal loan or funding requirements is exempted from the parts of this Section in conflict with the loan or funding requirements. d. Any Dwelling Unit shared with a Landlord or sub-leaser as their primary residence is exempted from this Section.
Damages. a. Any Applicant claiming to be aggrieved by a Landlord's noncompliance with the foregoing has a cause of action in any court of competent jurisdiction for Damages and any such other remedies as may be appropriate.
Unit along with the depreciated value of each item at the time of move-in (the "Commencement Date"). D. Within one week of the Commencement Date, a Tenant may complete and submit to the Landlord, a condition report (on a form provided by the Landlord) noting any and all damage in the Dwelling Unit (the "Condition Report"). If the Tenant submits a Condition Report to the Landlord within one week of the Commencement Date, such Condition Report shall be the proof of the condition of the Dwelling Unit on the Commencement Date in order to assess damage beyond reasonable wear and tear at move out (the "Termination Date"). If, after the first week, the Tenant has not completed a Condition Report, a Landlord must complete a Condition Report and provide a copy to the Tenant. Any damages noted in the Condition Report completed by the Landlord upon move-in must also be documented in photographs and provided to the Tenant. If any damage noted in the Condition Report, is subsequently repaired, the Landlord must revise the Condition Report to reflect such repair, have it initialed by the Tenant, and provide a copy of the revised Condition Report. If either party disagrees with any damage noted on the Condition Report, they must write the nature of their disagreement on the Condition Report, initial, and provide a copy to the other party. Within one week of the Termination Date of which the Landlord had notice, the Landlord shall conduct a walk-through of the Dwelling Unit to document any damage beyond ordinary wear and tear not noted on the Condition Report (the "Final Inspection"). A Tenant, and/or the Tenant's representative, has the right to be present for the Final Inspection, but may choose not to participate. The Landlord must give notice of the date and time of the Final Inspection at least 24 hours in advance to the Tenant. Any damage for which a Landlord intends to withhold a portion of a Tenant's security deposit must be documented in writing and include proof of depreciated value for movable property in the Dwelling Unit including, but not limited to, original receipts or demonstration of a similar make and model, and visual damage must be documented in photographs and provided to the Tenant at the same time as the written accounting required under ORS 90.300 (12). To the extent that a Landlord seeks to charge labor costs greater than $200 to a Tenant, the Landlord must provide documentation demonstrating that the labor costs are reasonable and consistent with the typical hourly rates in the metropolitan region. A Landlord may not charge for damage noted on the Condition Report. E. Within 2 weeks of receipt of a security deposit, a Landlord must deposit the money in a separate checking, savings, money market, or client trust account and provide the bank institution name and account number in writing to the Tenant. If the account bears interest, the Landlord is required to pay such interest in full, minus an optional 5% deduction for administrative costs, to the Tenant unless it is used to cover any claims for damage. For interest bearing accounts, the Landlord must provide a receipt of the account and any interest earned at the Tenant's request, no more than once per year. A Landlord may pool multiple security deposits in a single account so long as the account is separate from the Landlord's personal funds, is not accessed except to deposit and withdraw Tenant deposits, and Landlord can provide an individual accounting of each Tenant deposit and the interest earned thereon. A landlord shall have six (6) months from the effective date of this Subsection to comply with the requirements of this Subsection.
F. Contemporaneously with the delivery of the written accounting required by ORS 90.300 (12), the Landlord must also deliver to the Tenant a written notice of rights regarding security deposits ("Notice of Rights"). Such Notice of Rights must specify all of Tenant's right to damages under this Section. The requirement in this Section may be met by delivering a copy of this Section to the Tenant along with contact information for the nearest Legal Aid Services of Oregon office or the Oregon State Bar. G. Within 5 business days of receiving or giving a notice of any kind that terminates a tenancy, a Landlord must provide a written accounting of the Tenant's Rent payment history that covers the tenancy for the term or the prior two years, whichever is longer. Within 5 business days of receiving or giving a notice of any kind that terminates a tenancy, a Landlord must provide a completed Rental History Form as provided by PHB. H. A Landlord that fails to comply with any of the requirements set forth in Section 30.01.87 shall be liable to the Tenant for the security deposit, a penalty in the amount equal to two times the security deposit, as well as attorney fees and costs (collectively, "Damages"). Any Tenant claiming to be aggrieved by a Landlord's noncompliance with the foregoing has a cause of action in any court of competent jurisdiction for Damages and any such other remedies as may be appropriate.


例句-1:My sister-in-law has always been drawn to helping the poor. Her job as a social worker, though, doesn't pay very well. She barely covers her expenses every month. Still, she'd rather eke out a living doing what she likes than living comfortably from a job that's unrewarding.
例句-2:Fans of the Daredevils have been rewarded with some amazing basketball playing this season. You see, their team kept looking like they were heading for another defeat. Then, they would somehow outmaneuver their opponents to win the game. The way they've been eking out one victory after another, they may be making it to the finals after all!


A great way to keep an eye on how Elucidat's reporting to your LMS is to use the Developer window.
This is possible in most browsers but I am going to demonstrate how to do this in Google Chrome.
Open your project in preview at the first page of your project.
Now as you progress through your course you will be able to see which messages your project is reporting.


text:
Vernonia galamensis est une espèce de plantes à graines oléagineuses de la famille des Asteraceae. C'est une espèce africaine.

Utilisation en pétrochimie

Vernonia galamensis est une plante considérée depuis longtemps par les fermiers éthiopiens comme nuisible pour les cultures. Elle a néanmoins un potentiel considérable comme substitut du pétrole. Ses graines noires brillantes, une fois pressées, produisent une huile riche en acide vernolique, un acide gras naturellement époxydé. C'est une aubaine pour la production des époxys, qui n'ont longtemps été dérivés que de produits pétroliers.

Notes et références

Liens externes

Espèce d'Angiospermes (nom scientifique)
Galamensis
Plante oléagineuse
Plante industrielle
Plante utile

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Meet Johanna
Nordic vocalist Johanna Kuvaja has announced her debut single 'Shower', an upbeat catchy single well time for the summer with a style sounding like the personified love child of Aqua, Katy Perry and Kylie Minogue.
Written by Kuvaja herself, the single was mixed and mastered by award winning London-based producer Sefi Carmel, who has been mixing music of real icons such as David Bowie, Phil Collins, Bruno Mars, Michael Buble, Massive Attack and Birdy. The song itself was recorded in Helsinki, Finland at Saumaa Records by Mikael Forsby, who also provided instrumentation.
A singer-songwriter and music teacher from Tampere, Finland. She has a long history of working in music, in collaboration with various renowned Finnish musicians, winning music composing competitions, touring the country as a duo and pop orchestra, and performing on Finnish television as part of the 'Finnish Star' series. Finally she's putting her foot forward as a solo singer-songwriter.
"I feel so blessed that Sefi came in the picture to work on my first single. Sefi heard my song thanks to my Finnish producer and offered to mix and master the song. After a long break, I decided to follow my heart and pursue a music career again," says Johanna Kuvaja.
"Sometimes music is the only medicine the heart and soul needs. Music helped me through a health tragedy, divorce and depression. I discovered my greatest talent and found my purpose and passion through the most difficult time in my life".
Learning piano from the age of 6, she had entered the conservatory by the time she was 10. She eventually studied TV-performance and music at university, earning her degree and becoming a certified piano teacher.
After picking up violin and Finland's national instrument, the kantele, at 10 she was part of an ensemble that claimed the Finnish Championship at the Folk Music Festival three years in a row (they were forbidden from competing the next year). Here she began performing on television and touring, both nationally and internationally. After winning her first songwriting competition, she entered more such events, including the Eurovision song contest.
Having studied music, radio and TV performance at university and earning her Master's in Education, Kuvaja has years of experience teaching music at school and giving kantele and piano lessons. The next ten years meant putting music to the side owing to motherhood, losing her home and belongings, and multiple health problems due to mold toxicity. For some time, Kuvaja had lost her voice and eyesight, suffered tremors, memory problems and MCS (multple chemical sensitivity).
Kuvaja ultimately pulled through all of this, and ultimately found inspiration to write dozens of songs again during her sick leave. "I've been documenting my tough journey on my blog and Instagram to my 25K followers. They are excited to hear my song and I'm thankful that they are already being supportive," says Johanna Kuvaja.
© 2019 johannakuvaja.com
01. Shower
Johanna Kuvaja

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Nigezza Creates: Look Back on last year: Do you want to build a snowman? Stampin Up Style!
Look Back on last year: Do you want to build a snowman? Stampin Up Style!
Thank you so much for visiting my blog today, I really hope you like my project. I have been looking at the Christmas projects I made last year and thought I would share some of my favourites again. This one gained some recent attention because people saw this little chap in my craft room tour and asked for the tutorial. So I have decided to share it again in case new followers missed it and have not scrolled back a year to find it.
It was quite funny looking back at the video, I just watched snippets of it, at first I had no idea where is was filmed then realised it was in my lounge on the coffee table and I was using a tripod - my desk must have been really messy for me to move to the lounge! lol!
Also funny seeing my old watermark and my old home made photo light box ... I have come along way since then!


1.) Below is a FREE Praxis Core Study Guide and Practice Test Questions!
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Go to: www.teachingsolutions.org/praxis-core-study-guide right now.
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text:
Q: In SharePoint 2010 how to add target="_blank" for all  tags using jQuery I've a requirement to add a target attribute on <a> tag in Sharepoint2010. As by default there is no any option to select target attribute while making a Listing page.
I am using SharePoint Designer 2010 to make changes on pages.  I tried to add a jquery CDN library and a specific code on one page.  But after saving the page all code disappear .

I need to know in Sharepoint where can I add this script so all the <a>
  tag  added a target="_blank".

<script src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-1.11.1.min.js"></script>
$('a[href]').attr('target', '_blank');

Have a look at reference screenshot.

A: Add your JavaScript in a text file and save it in style library and using content editor webpart refer the file.
Are you trying to open all the links in a new tab or new window ? If yes then adding target attribute to the anchor tab will not help. By default List view have target attribute as "_self". Listview title column has onclick event also associated. Use below JavaScript to solve your issue:
             <script type="text/javascript">
                        function EditLink2(current, id)
                        {
                            var win = window.open(current.href, '_blank');
                            win.focus();
                        }

            </script>

A: Add it in your master page, just before the </body> tag.
<script src="//code.jquery.com/jquery-1.11.1.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function(){

   $('a').attr('target', '_blank');

});
</script>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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We Wouldn't Be Too Quick To Buy NZ Automotive Investments Limited (NZSE:NZA) Before It Goes Ex-Dividend
10 December 2021, 12:02 pm ·4-min read
NZ Automotive Investments Limited (NZSE:NZA) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next 4 days. The ex-dividend date is one business day before a company's record date, which is the date on which the company determines which shareholders are entitled to receive a dividend. The ex-dividend date is important because any transaction on a stock needs to have been settled before the record date in order to be eligible for a dividend. This means that investors who purchase NZ Automotive Investments' shares on or after the 15th of December will not receive the dividend, which will be paid on the 23rd of December.
The upcoming dividend for NZ Automotive Investments is NZ$0.016 per share. If you buy this business for its dividend, you should have an idea of whether NZ Automotive Investments's dividend is reliable and sustainable. So we need to check whether the dividend payments are covered, and if earnings are growing.
View our latest analysis for NZ Automotive Investments
Dividends are usually paid out of company profits, so if a company pays out more than it earned then its dividend is usually at greater risk of being cut. NZ Automotive Investments distributed an unsustainably high 147% of its profit as dividends to shareholders last year. Without more sustainable payment behaviour, the dividend looks precarious. Yet cash flows are even more important than profits for assessing a dividend, so we need to see if the company generated enough cash to pay its distribution. NZ Automotive Investments paid a dividend despite reporting negative free cash flow last year. That's typically a bad combination and - if this were more than a one-off - not sustainable.
It's disappointing to see that the dividend was not covered by profits, but cash is more important from a dividend sustainability perspective, and NZ Automotive Investments fortunately did generate enough cash to fund its dividend. Still, if the company repeatedly paid a dividend greater than its profits, we'd be concerned. Very few companies are able to sustainably pay dividends larger than their reported earnings.
Click here to see how much of its profit NZ Automotive Investments paid out over the last 12 months.
historic-dividend
Have Earnings And Dividends Been Growing?
Companies with falling earnings are riskier for dividend shareholders. If earnings decline and the company is forced to cut its dividend, investors could watch the value of their investment go up in smoke. From this perspective, we're disturbed to see earnings per share plunged 100% over the last 12 months, and we'd wonder if the company has had some kind of major event that has skewed the calculation.
We'd also point out that NZ Automotive Investments issued a meaningful number of new shares in the past year. It's hard to grow dividends per share when a company keeps creating new shares.
This is NZ Automotive Investments's first year of paying a dividend, which is exciting for shareholders - but it does mean there's no dividend history to examine.
Has NZ Automotive Investments got what it takes to maintain its dividend payments? Not only are earnings per share declining, but NZ Automotive Investments is paying out an uncomfortably high percentage of both its earnings and cashflow to shareholders as dividends. Unless there are grounds to believe a turnaround is imminent, this is one of the least attractive dividend stocks under this analysis. Bottom line: NZ Automotive Investments has some unfortunate characteristics that we think could lead to sub-optimal outcomes for dividend investors.
With that in mind though, if the poor dividend characteristics of NZ Automotive Investments don't faze you, it's worth being mindful of the risks involved with this business. To help with this, we've discovered 8 warning signs for NZ Automotive Investments (2 can't be ignored!) that you ought to be aware of before buying the shares.
We wouldn't recommend just buying the first dividend stock you see, though. Here's a list of interesting dividend stocks with a greater than 2% yield and an upcoming dividend.
Four cultural spots to hit this spring
Pack your bags for everything, from hip-hop in Manhattan to Vermeer in Amsterdam or Hepworth in St Ives
"Y'all ain't gonna run up on me like that," West can be heard telling the woman through the car window as she photographs him.
Lauri Markkanen scored 29 points, Malik Beasley added 19 and the Utah Jazz took advantage of Dallas star Luka Doncic's absence to beat the Mavericks 108-100 on Saturday night. Jordan Clarkson added 14 points for Utah, and Walker Kessler had 14 points, 11 rebounds, and five blocks. The Jazz rolled out three big men in their starting lineup with great success.


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Frank Ryan plans 'seamless transition'
While he won't be officially sworn into office until January, this week state Rep.-elect Frank Ryan (R-Lebanon) announced he will be continuing the same office hours of his predecessor and will be retaining the existing staff as well as the office location:
"Just as I have done in my previous service in both the military and the business world, my objective as your representative in the General Assembly has been to hit the ground running," said Ryan. "To that end, I have asked my predecessor's district office staff to remain with me, and I am truly honored that they have agreed to do so. This will help provide a seamless transition for those folks for whom our office has been working with."
Current district office contact information and operating hours are as follows:
1044 E. Main St.
Palmyra, PA 17078
Hours: Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Internet users are encouraged to visit www.RepFrankRyan.com for the latest district event information and state government updates.
"Government is designed to serve the people and fulfilling my responsibilities as an effective and accessible public servant will always be my top priority," Ryan said. "The people of the 101st District should know that my staff and I are here to do everything we possibly can to meet and exceed your expectations both at home and in Harrisburg. Most importantly, we are here to listen and to serve you."


text:
Home > News > Korea > S. Korea confirms homegrown space rocket's satellite orbit deployment capability
S. Korea confirms homegrown space rocket's satellite orbit deployment capability
A South Korean satellite has made two-way communication with its ground station, officials said Wednesday, confirming the success of the country's first-ever self-powered satellite deployment project.
South Korea on Tuesday successfully launched the 200-ton Nuri from Naro Space Center in the country's southern coastal village of Goheung in a major milestone in the country's space program.
The rocket, also known as KSLV-II, succeeded in deploying satellites at a target altitude of 700 kilometers as planned, according to officials.
The Ministry of Science and ICT announced a day after the launch that the performance verification satellite successfully made two-way communication with the ground station at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) in Daejeon, 160 kilometers south of Seoul, at 3:01 a.m. Wednesday.
The communication follows the satellite's initial contact with South Korea's King Sejong Station in Antarctica after the launch Tuesday.
"Following the two-way communication with the KARI ground station in Daejeon, Nuri's satellite deployment capability has been fully confirmed," the ministry said.
From the latest communication, KARI verified the satellite was functioning properly with its condition intact.
It also commanded the satellite to sync up its clock with that of the ground station and also activated the satellite's GPS transmitter.
KARI plans to monitor the satellite and stabilize its position, then release four small cube satellites, which are currently joined to the performance verification satellite, one by one beginning next Wednesday.
This photo provided by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute shows South Korea's homegrown space rocket Nuri lifting off from Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province, southwestern South Korea, on June 21, 2022. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)


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Director's Report - December 2015
Harry Watts
During the 16 year history of the Kansas Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture, we have awarded more than $100,000 in scholarships to agriculture students all across the state.
This newsletter is dedicated to two Fort Hays State University students who have received financial support from your foundation. They include Amy Varner and Lane Mai. I wish you could meet these two Fort Hays State University students. I have had the privilege to speak to them at length about their future professional work in agriculture. It's clear the future of agriculture is in good hands.
I think you will enjoy reading their stories.
President Rich Felts, CEO Terry Holdren and KFB Board Member Doug Zillinger and staff participated in a full day visit with the FHSU leadership of the department of agriculture. We had lunch with current and former scholarship winners over the last three years. It was nice to see how they are doing and how they are impacting agriculture today and the future.
As you read, consider how you can make a difference in helping us permanently endow our future efforts to grow and expand our scholarship opportunities at K-State, Fort Hays State and many of the junior colleges that have active agriculture programs and technical schools.
Call (785-587-6106) or e-mail me wattsh@kfb.org to discuss how you can help your foundation permanently endow agricultural scholarship giving.
Together we can ensure our future farmers continue to grow and learn.
Amy Varner
Amy Varner grew up on her family farm near Towanda. Amy is the fourth generation to grow up working on the farm, just like her father and uncle, who work on the farm full-time, and just like her grandfather and great-uncles. Amy's mother teaches 5th grade for El Dorado Schools, and also comes from a family farm in Mullinville.
The Varner family farm is a diversified operation with a 300-head cow-calf operation, and crops including wheat, corn, soybeans, and hay. The younger generation of Varners specialize in raising goats for both meat and dairy, which initially began as a 4-H project but is rapidly growing. Amy is the oldest, with two younger sisters, Tara and Shelby. The three sisters have shown dairy goats in three states, and Amy has attended the American Dairy Goat Association (ADGA) National Dairy Goat Show in Minneapolis, MN and Louisville, KY.
At Fort Hays State University, Amy's been involved in Delta Tau Alpha (the agricultural honor society), the Agribusiness Club and Collegiate Farm Bureau. As if she weren't active enough, she even sings in the FHSU Women's Chorale. Her recent internship with ADM as a commodity merchandiser earned her a post-grad position with the company.
After graduating from FHSU and through her position with ADM, Amy's goal is to educate the public about farming challenges facing the future, such as water usage in western Kansas. She believes it's more important than ever to use her education to advocate for more efficient use of resources on farms, and connecting the public to agriculture.
"The financial award from Kansas Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture is greatly appreciated. It's nice to know that an organization who supports agriculture so much is willing to invest in the younger KFB members, too."
Lane Mai
Fort Hays State University student Lane Mai comes from a family farm in Russell county. Lane, his parents, and his brother "work as a family to make things work." And they need all the help they can get with 800 acres of crops, 40 head of cattle, and an ever-growing show pig operation to manage.
The farm is only one aspect of the Mai family's involvement in agriculture. Lane's mother works for a crop insurance company and his father is Parts Manager at a local implement dealership. The whole family stays active in the county's 4-H program and the local FFA Alumni chapter. When they're not busy working on the farm, Lane and his family are traveling across the country to show and exhibit their livestock.
Lane is the third generation to raise hogs on the Mai family farm, but they've made the transition from commercial hogs to the niche market of show pigs. Although with his schoolwork and helping to maintain the farm leaving very little free-time, Lane is a member of the Collegiate Farm Bureau organization at FHSU.
His goal after graduation is to return to the farm full time to raise show pigs, grow the herd of cattle, and take over the farming operation; just as generations before him have done. Lane believes his education at FHSU has afforded him the knowledge needed to help tackle the growing demand for food production and farmers.
"It's an honor to be selected as a recipient of the Kansas Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture Scholarship and I greatly appreciate their help towards furthering my education. Thanks to the KFB Foundation's involvement in Kansas agriculture and generosity in funding scholarships, I can attend school, thrive in the classroom and graduate with a degree that has a positive impact on my future."
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BANGKOK – The price of oil headed down again Wednesday as gloomy economic forecasts pushed supply concerns to the background.
Benchmark oil was down 28 cents to $92.11 per barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $3.06 to finish at $92.39 per barrel on concerns about supplies from the Middle East and the North Sea.
In London, Brent crude, which is used to price international varieties of oil, fell 32 cents to $114.18.
The International Monetary Fund said Tuesday the world's advanced economies are at risk of recession, a development that would likely depress the consumption of energy. The IMF cut its forecast for global growth this year to 3.3 percent from a forecast of 3.5 percent issued in July.
Traders have been watching developments in Syria for any signs of a disruption in supplies from the Middle East. Cross-border artillery exchanges with Turkey have heightened fears that the violence between government and opposition forces in Syria could escalate into a wider regional conflict.
— Natural gas rose 3.9 cents to $3.506 per 1,000 cubic feet.
— Heating oil fell 0.9 cent to $3.195 per gallon.
— Wholesale gasoline fell 0.3 cent to $2.955 per gallon.


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My job keeps me busy and like most of us, the day is made up of pieces. Move through the routine, start something new, fix a problem, talk about TV shows.
Every once in a while something about work just feels fantastic. I'll have an interesting conversation with a reporter, this summer's super intern turns in professional work, a former student touches base to share some success, or an idea that started in my head takes shape and adds value to all that we do.
This morning, I just love our homepage at BusinessJournalism.org. I'll share it here. | And here's another in early 2014. | And another in February 2014. What I like about these are the way they look, of course, but also how full they are of information that is useful for business journalists. | The images below are what we call Trending Topic packages, resources and ideas that might help a reporter covering business.
BusinessJournalism.org April 2010, soon after the relaunch.


text:
Q: Query product list with quantity bought for each My MySQL isn't as sharp as others and I've been trying to figure this out for the past hour. Maybe you can point me in the right direction. I have a list of products and I'm trying to get a report out of them. This is what I have:
-- Product list: tbl_products
id       product_name
------  ----------------
1        Hamburger
2        Cheeseburger
3        Burger Balls

-- List of orders: tbl_orders
id       created
------  -----------------------
23       2013-09-04 00:00:00
45       2013-09-05 00:00:00
67       2013-09-09 00:00:00

-- Products bought per order: tbl_product_orders
order_id    product_id      quantity
----------  --------------  --------
23          1                4
23          2                6
45          1                1
67          3                2

This is what I'm trying to achieve with one query:
-- How do I get this
order_id    Hamburger     Cheeseburger    Burger Balls
----------  ------------- --------------- --------------
23           4             6               0
45           1             0               0
67           0             0               2

Does anyone know how to do this?
Edit:
I'll post my earlier scripts in a bit. I just have to run to class right now. :)

A: You can do it with dynamic SQL
SET @sql = NULL;

SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(CONCAT('SUM(CASE WHEN product_id = ', id,
                           ' THEN quantity ELSE 0 END) `', product_name, '`'))
  INTO @sql
  FROM tbl_products;

SET @sql = CONCAT('SELECT order_id,', @sql,
                  '  FROM tbl_product_orders
                    GROUP BY order_id');

PREPARE stmt FROM @sql;
EXECUTE stmt;
DEALLOCATE PREPARE stmt;

Output:

| ORDER_ID | HAMBURGER | CHEESEBURGER | BURGER BALLS |
|----------|-----------|--------------|--------------|
|       23 |         4 |            6 |            0 |
|       45 |         1 |            0 |            0 |
|       67 |         0 |            0 |            2 |

Here is SQLFiddle demo

To simplify things on calling end you can wrap it into a stored procedure
DELIMITER $$
CREATE PROCEDURE sp_report()
BEGIN
  SET @sql = NULL;

  SELECT GROUP_CONCAT(CONCAT('SUM(CASE WHEN product_id = ', id,
                             ' THEN quantity ELSE 0 END) `', product_name, '`'))
    INTO @sql
    FROM tbl_products;

  SET @sql = CONCAT('SELECT order_id,', @sql,
                    '  FROM tbl_product_orders
                      GROUP BY order_id');

  PREPARE stmt FROM @sql;
  EXECUTE stmt;
  DEALLOCATE PREPARE stmt;
END$$
DELIMITER ;

Here is SQLFiddle demo

A: this will work, only one join:
select order_id,
sum(if(product_orders.product_id=1, product_orders.quantity, 0)) as hamburglars,
sum(if(product_orders.product_id=2, product_orders.quantity, 0)) as cheese_burglars,
sum(if(product_orders.product_id=3, product_orders.quantity, 0)) as burglar_balls
from orders inner join product_orders on orders.id=product_orders.order_id
group by order_id


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text:
Q: Linker errors with WinPcap I'm using WinPcap library in a visual C++ project. When I try to compile the project I get linker errors however I've correctly configured the project properties to include the appropriate files and libraries.
Here are the errors I got :
Error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol _pcap_findalldevs_ex referenced in function _main consolewinpcap.obj
Error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol _pcap_geterr referenced in function _main consolewinpcap.obj
Error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol _pcap_next_ex referenced in function _main consolewinpcap.obj
Error LNK2019: unresolved external symbol _pcap_open referenced in function _main consolewinpcap.obj

UPDATE :
Here is a part of the ".vcproj" file
<Tool
   Name="VCCLCompilerTool"
   Optimization="0"
   AdditionalIncludeDirectories=".\WinPCap\Include"
   PreprocessorDefinitions="WIN32;_DEBUG;_CONSOLE;WPCAP"
   MinimalRebuild="true"
   BasicRuntimeChecks="3"
   RuntimeLibrary="3"
   UsePrecompiledHeader="2"
   WarningLevel="3"
   DebugInformationFormat="4"
/>
<Tool
   Name="VCManagedResourceCompilerTool"
/>
<Tool
   Name="VCResourceCompilerTool"
/>
<Tool
   Name="VCPreLinkEventTool"
/>
<Tool
   Name="VCLinkerTool"
   AdditionalDependencies="wpcap.lib Packet.lib"
   ShowProgress="0"
   LinkIncremental="2"
   AdditionalLibraryDirectories=".\WinPCap\lib"
   GenerateDebugInformation="true"
   SubSystem="2"
   TargetMachine="1"
/>

Any help would be appreciated.

A: When you are doubt about the linker process it's useful to enable the "Show Progress" option. You find it in the Linker/General tab.
If you don't use the GUI you can also change the .vcproject file. You find it here:
<Tool Name="VCLinkerTool"
    ShowProgress="1"
    ...
/>


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text:
Russians want 'Satan' missile shield to save us from asteroids
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a5E2PDNy_M
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/06/24/russians-want-satan-missile-shield-to-save-us-from-asteroids/#ixzz2XlFEguHY
An old ballistic missile system should be modified to defend Earth from asteroids, a Russian scientist says, citing a major explosion over the Urals earlier this year.
The Soviet-era SS-18 "Satan" heavy intercontinental ballistic missiles are ideal for conversion into a rapid-reaction anti-asteroid system, said senior rocket researcher Sabit Saitgarayev over the weekend.
Saitgarayev of the State Rocket Design Center pointed to the destructive power of the meteor which burst over the Russian Ural Mountains on February 15. The sonic boom of the airburst blew out windows and damaged thousands of buildings around the city of Chelyabinsk.
About 1,200 people were injured. Some 50 were hospitalized.
NASA believed the space rock to have been some 15 meters in diameter.
Saitgarayev said the old 1960s-era Soviet "Satan" missiles were ideally suited to such an interception role as they could be held ready for launch for up to 10 years.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/06/24/russians-want-satan-missile-shield-to-save-us-from-asteroids/#ixzz2XlFPpOdK
The Soviet-era SS-18 "Satan" heavy intercontinental ballistic missiles were ideal for conversion into a rapid-reaction anti-asteroid system, said senior rocket researcher Sabit Saitgarayev at the weekend.
Mr Saitgarayev, of the State Rocket Design Centre, pointed to the destructive power of the meteor which burst over the Russian Ural Mountains on February 15. The sonic boom of the airburst blew out windows and damaged thousands of buildings around the city of Chelyabinsk.
About 1200 people were injured. Some 50 were hospitalised.
NASA believed the space rock to have been some 15 metres in diameter.
Mr Saitgarayev said the old 1960s-era Soviet "Satan" missiles were ideally suited to such an interception role as they could be held ready for launch for up to 10 years.
C09FFA4C-DC6A-11E2-A2A7-BA3B27A8768F
Source: Supplied
"Carrier rockets created on the basis of intercontinental ballistic missiles like (Satan), which use standard liquid fuel based on hydrazine, are well-suited for fighting suddenly discovered small objects," he said.
"They can stay in the condition of their readiness for launch for ten and more years, after some re-equipping."
This would enable "Satan" to be launched against an inbound asteroid with only 20 minutes warning.
Most modern missile systems need several days to fuel, and this is usually done before a scheduled launch.
Saitgarayev said giving the "Satan" an upgrade including a third stage booster would enable it to target - and destroy - asteroids some five to six hours before they would strike the Earth.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-tech/old-8216satan8217-ballistic-missiles-should-be-converted-into-an-antiasteroid-defence-system-says-russian-scientist/story-fn5fsgyc-1226668703183#ixzz2XlFfiYws
Posted by TheVision at 6/30/2013 10:34:00 PM No comments:
Planetary Resources Calls on Citizens of Earth to Aid in Planetary Defense: Company Announces New Crowdfunding Goal to Create "Asteroid Zoo" for Public to Search for Dangerous Near-Earth Asteroids
From: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/planetary-resources-calls-on-citizens-of-earth-to-aid-in-planetary-defense-213357051.html
BELLEVUE, Wash., June 27, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Planetary Resources, the asteroid mining company, has announced a collaboration with Zooniverse that will empower citizen scientists to aid in the search for dangerous near Earth asteroids (NEAs) and support planetary defense.
Planetary Resources is in the final stretch of its Kickstarter campaign, ARKYD – the world's first crowdfunded space telescope for the public, which has generated nearly 15,000 supporters and US$1.2M in pledges. If pledges reach US$1.7 million in the three remaining days of the campaign, Planetary Resources and Zooniverse will create Asteroid Zoo, a program to allow students, citizen scientists and space enthusiasts to find potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) at home and help train computers to better find them in the future.
Visit Planetary Resources' Kickstarter Page to Help Reach this Goal: http://bit.ly/ARKYD-100
"Planetary Resources values the power of the connected mind; when working together, we can accomplish much more than any of us can do alone," said Chris Lewicki, President and Chief Engineer, Planetary Resources, Inc. "We're creating this program to harness the public's interest in space and asteroid detection, while providing a very real benefit to our planet."
Chris Lintott, astronomer at the University of Oxford and Zooniverse Principal Investigator said, "Zooniverse volunteers have already inspected more than a million galaxies, discovered planets and kept an eye on solar storms. We're looking forward to working with Planetary Resources to make sure citizen scientists everywhere can make a real contribution to spotting asteroids, too."
It's been 66 million years since scientists believe a 10-kilometer asteroid slammed into the Earth, leading to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Today, there are approximately 620,000 objects that are actively tracked in our Solar System, which represents merely one percent of the 60 million asteroids estimated to orbit the Sun. The NEA population of 1 km+ asteroids is approximately 860, over 90 percent of which are known and 155 of which might be described as extinction-level/dinosaur-killing PHAs. It is currently estimated that less than one percent of smaller asteroids (less than 100m) have been found. None of these currently pose a threat to Earth, and while many of these asteroids are small, they are capable of regional disaster, such as massive damage to a metro city.
Modeled after Zooniverse's popular Galaxy Zoo and other astronomy projects, Asteroid Zoo will allow the public to search through terabytes of data collected by Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) for undiscovered asteroids in a fun, game-like process from their personal computers. The public's findings will be used by scientists to develop advanced asteroid-searching technology for telescopes on Earth and in space, including the ARKYD. Of all the asteroids ever discovered, 93 percent were found in the last 15 years and nearly half of the near-Earth asteroids were discovered by CSS.
Eric Christensen, Principal Investigator for the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey stated, "We're excited to open our archive of more than three-million images to citizen scientists around the world, and look forward to seeing what surprises are hiding in the data set. The results of this effort will provide invaluable feedback that we can use to make CSS a better survey."
Defending our planet from PHAs is also a top priority for NASA, which recently announced a new grand challenge of "finding all asteroid threats to human populations and knowing what to do about them."
About Planetary Resources
Planetary Resources, Inc. was founded in 2009 by Eric Anderson and Dr. Peter H. Diamandis. Our vision is to establish a new paradigm for resource utilization that will bring the Solar System within humanity's economic sphere of influence. The company will conduct low-cost robotic space exploration beginning with the Arkyd Series of space missions that will identify the most commercially viable near-Earth asteroids. These initial missions will assist the company in enabling the retrieval of raw materials from these select asteroids, including water, precious metals and more.
Planetary Resources is financed by industry-launching visionaries, three of whom include Google's CEO Larry Page & Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt; and Ross Perot, Jr., Chairman of Hillwood and The Perot Group; who are committed to expanding the world's resource base so humanity can continue to grow and prosper for centuries to come. Some of the company's partners and advisors include the Bechtel Corporation; film maker and explorer James Cameron; former Chief of Staff, United States Air Force General T. Michael Moseley (Ret.); and Sara Seager, Ph.D., Professor of Planetary Science and Physics at MIT. Members of the company's technical staff have worked on every recent U.S. Mars lander including Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity, and include other key non-aerospace and safety-critical disciplines. For more information, please visit www.planetaryresources.com.
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and YouTube for all the latest updates!
SOURCE Planetary Resources
http://www.planetaryresources.com
Posted by TheVision at 6/30/2013 10:02:00 PM 1 comment:
Asteroid 1998 QE2 flies past Eart
From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22736709
An asteroid that measures nearly 2.7km (1.7 miles) across has flown past the Earth.
The space rock, which is called 1998 QE2, is so large that it is orbited by its own moon.
It made its closest approach to our planet at 20:59 GMT (21:59 BST), but scientists had said there would be no chance it would hit.
Instead it kept a safe distance - at closest, about 5,800,000 km (3,600,000 miles).
That is about 200 times more distant than the asteroid "near-miss" that occurred in February - but Friday's passing space rock is more than 50,000 times larger.
Prof Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer at Queen's University Belfast, said: "It's a big one. And there are very few of these objects known - there are probably only about 600 or so of this size or larger in near-Earth space.
"And importantly, if something this size did hit us one day in the future, it is extremely likely it would cause global environmental devastation, so it is important to try and understand these objects."
Dark visitor
This fly-by gave astronomers the chance to study the rocky mass in detail.
Using radar telescopes, they were due to record a series of high-resolution images.
They want to find out what it is made of, and exactly where in the Solar System it came from.
Prof Fitzsimmons said: "We already know from the radar measurements, coupled with its brightness, that it appears to be a relatively dark asteroid - that it's come from the outer part of the asteroid belt."
Early analysis has already revealed that the asteroid has its own moon: it is being orbited by another smaller piece of rock that is about 600m (2000ft) across.
About 15% of asteroids that are large are "binary" systems like this.
This celestial event was not visible to the naked eye, but space enthusiasts with even a modest telescope might be able to witness the pass.
After this, asteroid 1998 QE2 will hurtle back out into deep space; Friday's visit will be its closest approach for at least two centuries.
Researchers are becoming increasingly interested in potential hazards in space.
So far they have counted more than 9,000 near-Earth asteroids, and they spot another 800 new space rocks on average each year.
NASA Seeks Private-Sector Posse to Hunt Asteroids
From: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-06-18/nasa-seeks-private-sector-posse-to-hunt-asteroids
Forget sentient glasses and self-driving cars, "asteroid transportation" may be the hottest thing in engineering.
NASA summoned captains of industry to Washington this morning to pitch its plan to harness earthbound asteroids with spacecraft. The briefing, along with a request for information from potential private-sector partners, is part of the government's "enhanced focus on planetary defense." In other words, the government needs help saving the world. NASA hopes to be able to snare a small asteroid by 2025. In addition to an Armageddon-style rendezvous, the agency aims to double its capacity to spot potentially hazardous objects zipping through space, or in NASA terminology: "near-earth objects."
At any given time there are several dozen asteroids and comets for which "future earth impact cannot be ruled out," according to the space agency. (To induce a light existential crisis, feel free to check the agency's list of rogue space rocks.) "The average person is oblivious to the threat," NASA chief Charles Bolden told Bloomberg News today. "Unlike other natural disasters, we can avert this. It allows us to avoid becoming like the dinosaurs."
NASA already has its eyes on three asteroids—each about 10 meters wide—that are likely candidates for redirection. In theory, NASA and its private-sector partners would use solar-powered spacecraft to drag the asteroids away from earth and into orbit with the moon. Saving the planet aside, there's also some money in it for potential partners. Of NASA's $18 billion proposed budget for 2014, it hopes to set aside $105 million for asteroid goaltending.
NASA spokesman Dwayne Brown said today's meeting was "packed." Even though the space agency says it didn't have a sign-in sheet to collect names at today's event, several private-sector companies are already working on relevant space products, often in concert with NASA. Here's a look:
B612 Foundation: A Silicon Valley-based nonprofit planning to launch a space telescope by July 2018 to find and track threatening asteroids.
Blue Origin: A Washington-based company focused on building reusable rockets and spacecraft designed to both take off and land vertically.
Boeing (BA): The aeronautics giant already has an agreement to help NASA with commercial space flight, and its Houston-based space exploration unit has more than 3,000 employees.
Google (GOOG): The tech giant, led by known space enthusiasts, has its engineers mapping planets and is offering $20 million to any group that can land a robot on the moon.
Moon Express: A Bay Area aerospace startup that designs lunar landers in hopes of one day mining the moon.
Planetary Resources: A startup backed by Google founders that hopes to mine asteroids for precious metals.
Paragon Space Development: A Tucson (Ariz.)-based company that works on NASA life-support systems.
Sierra Nevada: A Nevada-based NASA partner specializing in high-tech manufacturing and electronics.
Space Exploration Technologies: Founded by Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk, SpaceX is already shooting supplies to the International Space Station.
Virgin Galactic: Richard Branson's space tourism company, which is already selling
tickets for $250,000 a seat.
White House, NASA want help hunting asteroids
From: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/white-house-nasa-want-help-hunting-asteroids/2013/06/17/8de0fdcc-d765-11e2-a9f2-42ee3912ae0e_story.html
The White House and NASA on Tuesday will ask the public for help finding asteroids that potentially could slam into the Earth with catastrophic consequences.
Citing planetary defense, the administration has decided that the search for killer rocks in space should be the latest in a series of "Grand Challenges," in which the government sets an ambitious goal, helps create public-private partnerships and sometimes offers prize money for innovative ideas.
Asteroids, comets, meteors and the movies: Asteroids are a popular go-to in the disaster and sci-fi movie genre. Here's a look at some of the most memorable ones.
"This is really a call to action to find all asteroid threats to human populations and know what to do about them," NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said Monday. She said the asteroid hunt would help prove that "we're smarter than the dinosaurs."
There is a second, overlapping agenda at work here: The NASA human spaceflight program needs to find a target rock for what is now being called the Asteroid Redirect Mission (formerly the Asteroid Retrieval Mission), or ARM.
The proposed mission, which is early in the planning stages, would send astronauts to visit an asteroid that had been redirected into a high lunar orbit. But first a robotic spacecraft would have to rendezvous with the asteroid and capture it. And even before that, scientists would have to find the right asteroid.
The target rock has to be moving at a leisurely pace relative to the Earth, and ideally would come close to the Earth-moon system sometime in the early 2020s. At present, NASA has a short list of possible targets, but all need further scrutiny to see if they have the size, shape, spin rate and composition that the asteroid mission would require.
Two recent feasibility studies used as their reference a rock discovered in 2009, but NASA scientists aren't sure that it will meet the mission requirements. For one thing, it might turn out to be too small. They plan to study it this fall with the Spitzer Space Telescope.
But NASA scientists are clearly eager to speed up the rate of discovery of small asteroids, and thus expand the pool of candidate rocks for the ARM mission.
The Earth coexists with a swarm of asteroids of varying sizes. Thanks to a number of asteroid searches in the past 15 years, some funded by NASA, about 95 percent of the near-Earth objects (NEOs) larger than 1 kilometer (about three-fifths of a mile) in diameter have already been detected, and their trajectories calculated. None poses a significant threat of striking the Earth in the foreseeable future.
The science is clear: Catastrophic impacts, such as the one implicated in the extinction of the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago, are very rare, and no one needs to panic about killer rocks.
But as one goes down the size scale, these objects become more numerous and harder to detect. Congress in 2005 charged NASA with finding all the asteroids greater than 140 meters (459 feet) in diameter. Asteroids that size are generally regarded as large enough to take out a city.
According to NASA, there are also probably about 25,000 near-Earth asteroids that are 100 meters (328 feet) or larger. Only 25 percent of those have been detected, many through NASA's Near Earth Object Program. The administration is asking Congress to double the budget for asteroid detection, to $40 million, Garver said.
But the Grand Challenge would elicit help from academics, international partners and backyard astronomers. The search for NEOs took on greater urgency on Feb. 15, when, on the very day that a previously detected asteroid was about to make a close pass of the Earth, an unknown 50-foot-diameter rock came out of the glare of the sun and fireballed through the atmosphere above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk.
The asteroid's disintegration caused a shock wave that shattered windows and caused hundreds of injuries and major property damage. It was the first recorded instance of an asteroid causing human casualties. (In 1908 an asteroid exploded over Siberia and flattened trees in a vast, unpopulated area.)
"Even though these smaller asteroids don't pose a threat to human civilization, they can still cause major damages and casualties on a regional level," said Tom Kalil, deputy director for technology and innovation at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
The administration's Grand Challenges include efforts to understand the human brain and cure brain disorders, make solar energy cost-competitive by the decade's end, and make electric cars as affordable as gasoline-powered vehicles.
KinetX Aerospace Joins Russian National Research University Higher School of Economics to Research Planetary Defense Joint efforts will help track potentially dangerous asteroids and explore other interplanetary space projects
From: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/kinetx-aerospace-joins-russian-national-research-university-higher-school-of-economics-to-research-planetary-defense-2013-06-17
TEMPE, Ariz., Jun 17, 2013 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- KinetX Aerospace and the world-renowned Russian National Research University Higher School of Economics (NRU HSE) are teaming on research efforts to detect and deflect potentially harmful asteroids from colliding with Earth. The Chelyabinsk asteroid event in Russia earlier this year highlighted the destructive power of smaller asteroids (it was only 17 meters across) that are not currently tracked.
A recently signed Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) solidifies a new phase of the ongoing relationship between KinetX and NRU HSE and the success these organizations achieved over the past year on a MegaGrant contract.
The initial focus of the joint team under this MOC was planetary defense. The KinetX / NRU HSE team presented initial approaches to tracking potentially dangerous asteroids not currently being tracked as well as how the risk might be mitigated at the International Academy of Astronautics Conference, "Gathering for Impact!", held in April in Flagstaff, Ariz.
Further work outlined in the MOC includes interplanetary space projects that advance space education, international space missions and commercial ventures.
The initial MegaGrant contract from the Russian Ministry of Education and Science, teaming with the Moscow State Institute of Electronics and Mathematics (technical university) (MIEM; now merged with NRU HSE), was won by Dr. David Dunham of KinetX in October 2011. Under the MegaGrant, the teams researched space missions to detect and classify asteroids and comets passing near the Earth. This grant also covered work to develop the means to modify orbits of space objects to prevent collisions with our planet, as well as to develop optimal trajectories to extend human exploration to interplanetary destinations.
"The next steps in space will be done via international and commercial cooperation, not by individual countries trying to shoulder the entire expense," said Dr. Dunham. "Relationships like ours that team the research prowess of NRU HSE with the deep space exploration experience KinetX personnel have in landing a spacecraft on an asteroid, and soon with OSIRIS-REx, are a solid foundation for mutually beneficial advancements."
"This MOC unites us in a common goal of developing international space missions between Russia and the US, and promoting the exploration of commercial space ideas and projects," said Professor Vladimir Kulagin. "Our focus on science transcends geopolitical concerns as we work together to design business models and creative solutions that leverage the combined talent and knowledge of our teams for the good of mankind."
The MOC will provide an opportunity for NRU HSE to utilize the newly-developed Laboratory of Space Research, Technologies, Systems and Processes that was started during the execution of the MegaGrant contract. This laboratory focus is on the development of world-class space research and to provide students and post-graduates an opportunity to develop and work on actual space missions.
The MOC requires the same strict adherence to all International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) which the KinetX / NRU HSE team have followed during MegaGrant contract, operating under a Technical Assistance Agreement that was approved by the U.S. State Department.
For more information on KinetX Aerospace's Systems Engineering solutions for aerospace, defense, and communications systems or its Space Navigation and Flight Dynamics (SNAFD) team that specializes in the navigation of earth orbiting and deep space missions, please visit: www.kinetx.com or call us at 480.829.6600.
About National Research University Higher School Of Economics
For more information about NRU HSE, please visit http://www.hse.ru/en/. For information about the Laboratory of Space Research please visit http://astro.miem.hse.ru/en/.
About KinetX Aerospace
KinetX Aerospace is an innovative engineering, technology and business consulting firm providing complete systems solutions for commercial and government markets. Specializing in aerospace systems, its engineers have an established track record of problem solving utilizing techniques that border on the forefront of technology. With a well-earned reputation for applying and integrating business applications, KinetX Aerospace has consistently increased client revenue, reduced costs and accelerated timelines. KinetX Aerospace is AS9100 REV. C, ISO9001:2008 and CMMI Level 3 certified. KinetX Aerospace also maintains a DCAA compliant cost accounting system.
KinetX Aerospace is the first commercial entity to provide spacecraft navigation services for NASA interplanetary missions and is currently providing similar mission design and navigation services for three NASA missions: the MESSENGER mission that is currently orbiting the planet Mercury, the New Horizons mission that is on its way to fly past Pluto in 2015, and the newly selected OSIRIS-REx mission that will return to Earth a sample from asteroid 1999 RQ36.
KinetX Aerospace is a privately held company headquartered in Tempe, Ariz., with additional offices in Simi Valley, Calif., and other employees located in Colorado, Maryland, and Virginia. It continues to build on the original goal of being a flexible, innovative company focused on what it does best - solving engineering challenges.
http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=bwnews&sty=20130617005412r1&sid=cmtx6&distro=nx
SOURCE: KinetX Aerospace
Russians Propose Space Billiards for Planetary Defense
From: http://en.ria.ru/analysis/20130531/181439126/Russians-Propose-Space-Billiards-for-Planetary-Defense.html
http://www.prisonplanet.com/russians-propose-space-billiards-for-planetary-defense.html
MOSCOW, May 31 (Alexey Eremenko, RIA Novosti) – The meteorite that blew up over Russia's Urals in mid-February, leaving 1,500 injured, came as a striking reminder of how vulnerable we are on our small, blue planet. It was suddenly palpably clear that we have no way of preventing celestial bodies from slamming into Earth.
The way out just might be to hit dangerous asteroids with other asteroids, Russian scientists say.
Several near-Earth asteroids can be towed into the vicinity of the planet to serve as a cache of celestial projectiles against incoming space threats, said Natan Eismont of the Space Research Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences.
"I was skeptical about it myself, until we actually tried to do computer modeling of the situation," Eismont, one of the project's authors, told RIA Novosti in a recent interview.
The orbiting asteroids can be "lined up" so that one passes 100,000 to 200,000 kilometers from Earth every few weeks or months, ready to be used against non-catalogued and hazardous asteroids, recent research by the Space Research Institute and the Higher School of Economics in Moscow suggests.
There are currently more than 9,000 near-Earth asteroids, or asteroids whose orbits bring them within 1 astronomical unit (149 million km or 92 million miles) of the Sun, and thus relatively close to the Earth as well. But this figure could be as little as 1 or 2 percent of their total number, Eismont said. New asteroids are discovered every day.
© RIA Novosti.
Asteroids That Buzz Planet Earth
Most suitable asteroids have elliptical orbits that bring them close to Earth at certain points, while the rest of the time they are several astronomical units away.
It is currently possible to send an unmannedProton rocket – a staple of the Russian space program –to land on an asteroid, carrying with it up to 2 tons of rocket fuel, Eismont said. Properly anchored, the rocket fuel would then ignite at a designated time, tweaking the asteroid's orbit.
Space rocks best suited for planetary defense weigh 1,500-2,000 tons and are 10 to 15 meters in diameter – smaller than the meteorite that blew up over the Urals, which measured 17 meters across and weighed over 9,000 tons. The 99942 Apophis – which was considered a potential hazard until updated calculations rolled in earlier this year – is estimated to be 325 meters in diameter and weigh 40 megatons.
Asteroids the size of Apophis hit Earth about once every 63,000 years, experts say, but the casualties from this kind of event could reach 10 million, and that warrants some caution.
Meteorites such as the one that blew up over the Urals hit once every 50 to 80 years, Eismont said.
The asteroid 1998 QE2, which is 2.7 kilometers (1.7 miles) in diameter, will zip past Earth at a distance of 5.8 million km (3.6 million miles) – or 15 lunar distances – at 20:59 universal time Friday (0:59 Saturday, Moscow time.)
The program costs about $1 billion per Proton launch, and the equipment needed to maneuver an asteroid into position can be developed within 10 to 12 years, Eismont said.
This whopping price tag may suggest that the plan is doomed to the realm of sci-fi. But in fact, NASA is already doing something similar with its Asteroid Retrieval and Utilization project, which proposes to rope in a 500-ton asteroid and bring it into lunar orbit, where it can be studied by manned missions starting in 2025. The White House has supported a plan to allot $105 million in 2014 for the first stage of the NASA project, which has a total price tag of $2.6 billion.
The Russian project saw money from a state "megagrant" of 150 million rubles ($4.8 million) plowed into it, but so far remains purely on paper.
Commenting shortly after the meteorite incident in the Urals last winter, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said that planetary defense is a priority for Russia's space industry. But the Russian government has so far not expressed any interest in the asteroid-ramming project.
The approach may counter some classes of celestial hazard, said Donald Yeomans, who heads the search for near-Earth objects at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena – a job that landed him on Time magazine's 2013 list of 100 most influential people in the world.
"If the asteroid that was predicted to strike Earth was fairly large and massive, its deflection as a result of a controlled impact by a small asteroid might make some sense," Yeomans told RIA Novosti.
However, smaller asteroids, though still dangerous, are better intercepted by ramming them with more maneuverable spacecraft, not other asteroids, he told RIA Novosti.
The Russian project raises a lot of technical problems, such as developing the asteroid-maneuvering equipment and anchoring it to the asteroid, said Vladimir Surdin of Moscow State University's Sternberg Astronomical Institute.
"There are other problems too, but nothing fatal. The method needs work, [but] it should be in the planetary defense arsenal," Surdin said.
And mankind needs just such an arsenal, given that, at least in Eismont's view, some kind of "attack" from space is inevitable.
"Nobody can tell you when the next asteroid will come, but everyone would tell you that come it will," Eismont said.
(Updated with correct date, May 31 instead of June 31, correct size of the asteroid 1998 QE2, and a revised definition of near-Earth asteroids.)
Posted by TheVision at 6/30/2013 08:55:00 PM 6 comments:
US State Department Arms Contro lHead in the Sand on Asteroid Defense "a slightly artificial issue"
From: http://www.worldbulletin.net/?aType=haber&ArticleID=109845
The United States plans to collaborate with Russia on missile issues and Afghanistan, but not planetary defense from space threats, a senior US diplomat said Saturday.
Building a joint asteroid defense system is not a "real proposal" until the project has funding, which is not on the cards with either country, said US Acting Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, Rose Gottemoeller.
The meteorite issue became a global topic after a celestial body exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in mid-February, injuring 1,500.
Meanwhile, Washington hopes to convince Russia to continue slashing strategic nuclear arms, Gottemoeller said on Ekho Moskvy radio, speaking in Russian.
The New START nuclear arms treaty, signed by Russia and the United States in 2010, limits deployed nuclear missiles and bombers capable of carrying nuclear weaponry for each country to 700.
Russia would consider further cuts to its nuclear arsenal if it gets guarantees that US plans to build a missile defense shield in Europe pose no threat to Russia's strategic parity with the United States, Chief of Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov said Thursday.
The missile defense shield is a "slightly artificial" issue that Washington hopes to resolve, Gottemoeller said on Ekho Moskvy. She reiterated earlier this week the official US position that the shield would not affect Russia's nuclear capabilities.
Washington also hopes to draw on Moscow's vast experience concerning Afghanistan ahead of the US troops' pullout of the country in 2014, Gottemoeller said.
Bob Zubrin Gets it Wrong
This is a classic case of someone who get's it wrong on the fundamentals, failing to perceive what are really the key and important technological vectors.
From: http://www.spacenews.com/article/opinion/35405nasa%E2%80%99s-asteroid-absurdity#.UdDU5jusiSo
NASA's Asteroid Absurdity
By Robert Zubrin | May. 20, 2013
NASA recently announced that it has embraced the idea of an asteroid retrieval mission as the central goal of its human spaceflight program for the next decade or two. According to the agency's leadership, this mission will accomplish a number of important objectives, including delivering a science bonanza, demonstrating a technology useful for planetary defense, creating a large cache of materials in space that can provide in situ resources to support space exploration activities and achieving the president's goal of flying a mission to a near-Earth asteroid as a way of breaking out of geocentric space and demonstrating human deep-space capabilities necessary for subsequent missions to Mars.
Since this initiative will cost many billions of dollars and, by diverting the entire multibillion-dollar human spaceflight program for decades, impose an opportunity cost amounting to many tens of billions of dollars, it is imperative that these claims be examined critically to see if any of them are true.
Let us therefore consider each of them in order.
There is no doubt that the "asteroid" mission, which involves using an electric propulsion spacecraft with a power supply half that of the international space station to push a 3.5-meter-radius object (i.e., a rock, not an asteroid) to a lunar-like orbit, and then visiting it with astronauts flying sorties in the Orion capsule sometime in the third decade of the 21st century, would eventually return some science. However, vastly more science could be achieved, much sooner, at much lower cost and risk, simply by sending a flotilla of small robotic spacecraft to collect kilogram-sized samples from multiple real asteroids and return them all the way to Earth.
While the electric propulsion system proposed for the so-called asteroid mission can be used over a period of several years of continuous thrusting to alter the trajectory of 3.5-meter rocks, objects representing planetary threats have masses thousands to millions of times greater, and it would not even be practical to despin them to allow continuous thrusting to begin, let alone deliver to them sufficient propellant or power to change their trajectories. There are tens of thousands of asteroids with radii over 100 meters, each with a mass of over 15 million tons. Assuming that such an object is in an Earth-like orbit, it would require a velocity change of about 1 meter per second to move the periapsis of its orbit by a distance equal to the diameter of Earth, and thus have a chance at turning a direct hit into a near-miss. Using electric propulsion, about 500 tons of propellant would be required, and the 40-kilowatt system employed by the asteroid mission would need to thrust continuously for 250 years to deliver the necessary push. A much more practical approach would be to send a missile armed with a conventional or nuclear warhead (depending upon the size of the object) to give the asteroid a sudden solid shove by blasting a small portion of its mass off its side. Unfortunately, in order to preserve a false rationale for the asteroid mission's electric propulsion system, such more potent approaches to planetary protection are being neglected.
The 3.5-meter rock moved to near-lunar orbit in the asteroid mission would have a mass of about 500 tons, which is about 20 times the mass of the system that would need to be launched to low Earth orbit to move it. This might appear to be a good trade, but the rock would likely be only about 5 percent water by weight, so in terms of potentially useful mass delivered to space it would only be a match. However, hydrogen and oxygen launched to low Earth orbit are already in useful form as pure cryogenic propellants, whereas the water in the rock would have to be extracted by processing 3 meters depth of rock, then collected, electrolyzed and cryogenically liquefied, all of which would require a system of considerable power and complexity. Furthermore, in its proposed near-lunar retrograde orbit, the propellant produced from the rock would be in the wrong place to support useful space exploration activity. In fact, the delta-V needed to leave low Earth orbit to reach the rock propellant depot would be about the same as the delta-V needed to leave low Earth orbit and fly directly to Mars. Therefore, even if the rock propellant depot were there today, ready to provide propellant for free to any Mars-bound mission willing to stop by to refuel, it would not make any sense to go there.
In situ resource utilization is a key technology to space exploration, but the resources to be used need to be located at the destination of interest, not somewhere else. Martian missions need to use resources located on Mars. Lunar missions need to use resources located on the Moon. A rock in a retrograde lunar orbit is of no resource utilization interest to anyone.
As to the claim that the asteroid retrieval mission achieves the goal set by President Barack Obama in 2010 of breaking out of geocentric space, that is simply untrue. In point of fact, aside from potentially providing a fat contract to an excessively influential electric propulsion company (see my op-ed "The VASIMR Hoax," SpaceNews, July 13, 2011), the entire purpose of the initiative is to find a way to shirk the challenge of human interplanetary flight.
The asteroid retrieval mission is not a competent way to advance science, planetary defense, in situ resource utilization or human interplanetary flight. It thus represents an enormous waste of time and money that could prevent NASA's human spaceflight program from achieving anything worthwhile for decades. Congress must not accept this. Hearings need to be held, with the NASA administrator required to defend his plan in the presence of technically qualified critics. If the plan is found to be irrational, then lawmakers need to insist that it be replaced with a space agency strategy that actually makes sense.
The American people want and deserve a human spaceflight program that really explores new worlds. It is past time that NASA stepped up to the plate and accepted that challenge.
Robert Zubrin is president of Pioneer Astronautics and the Mars Society and author of "The Case for Mars." His latest work, "Mars Direct: Space Exploration, the Red Planet, and the Human Future," was recently published by Penguin.
Lizards Appear to Be Hardier Astronauts Than Mice
From: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/05/lizards-appear-to-be-hardier-astronauts-than-mice/#.UZt9227tajA.email
a Russian experiment concluded yesterday when a space capsule containing live mice, lizards, crayfish and fish was recovered around 750 miles south of Moscow, the Associated Press reports.
The capsule spent a month traveling 375 miles above the planet's surface. That's higher than the International Space Station's orbit. The Russian scientists say that this experiment represents that longest period animals have ever spent alone in space and been recovered alive. In 2007, AP writes, the last research capsule to carry live animals into space spent only 12 days in orbit.
Not all of the research subjects made it, however.
Fewer than half of the 53 mice and other rodents who blasted off on April 19 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome survived the flight, Russian news agencies reported, quoting Vladimir Sychov, deputy director of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems and the lead researcher.
Sychov said this was to be expected and the surviving mice were sufficient to complete the study, which was designed to show the effects of weightlessness and other factors of space flight on cell structure. All 15 of the lizards survived, he said.
Read more: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/05/lizards-appear-to-be-hardier-astronauts-than-mice/#ixzz2XkgenOvF
Follow us: @SmithsonianMag on Twitter
Blog of the Planetary Defense Conference
http://www.planetary.org/blogs/bruce-betts/20130524-PDC-part-1.html
Buzz Aldrin Get's it Wrong
From: http://www.topsecretwriters.com/2013/05/buzz-aldrin-says-space-exploration-more-important-than-planetary-defense/
Buzz Aldrin Says Space Exploration More Important Than Planetary Defense
"Bringing an asteroid back to Earth? What's that have to do with space exploration?" Aldrin asked delegates at the summit.
Instead, the 83 year old shared his plan to "cycle" spacecraft to Mars and to continually launch trajectories between Earth and Mars to develop and expand a colony on the Red Planet.
Aldrin also promotes using Phobos, a moon of Mars, as a home base for landings.
Tatooine Like Planets could host life
http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/13/18938549-tatooine-like-planets-could-host-life?lite
dual suns might actually help prevent damaging solar winds from bombarding planets in their system, allowing for a wider "Goldilocks zone" of habitability, Joni Clark, an undergraduate at New Mexico State University, said..."It also leaves the potential open for smaller planets that have less magnetic field protection to remain habitable because in a sense they don't have to protect themselves from as much as they would in a single star case," Clark said.
Clark found that some "p-type" planets (that orbit both stars in a binary system) receive 0.7 percent less flux from solar wind than Earth depending on their position in the solar system.
NASA Announces Asteroid Grand Challenge
Sarah Ramsey/Rachel Kraft
Headquarters, Washington
sarah.ramsey@nasa.gov / rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov
RELEASE: 13-188
WASHINGTON -- NASA announced Tuesday a Grand Challenge focused on finding all asteroid threats to human populations and knowing what to do about them.
The challenge, which was announced at an asteroid initiative industry and partner day at NASA Headquarters in Washington, is a large-scale effort that will use multi-disciplinary collaborations and a variety of partnerships with other government agencies, international partners, industry, academia, and citizen scientists. It complements NASA's recently announced mission to redirect an asteroid and send humans to study it.
"NASA already is working to find asteroids that might be a threat to our planet, and while we have found 95 percent of the large asteroids near the Earth's orbit, we need to find all those that might be a threat to Earth," said NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver. "This Grand Challenge is focused on detecting and characterizing asteroids and learning how to deal with potential threats. We will also harness public engagement, open innovation and citizen science to help solve this global problem."
Grand Challenges are ambitious goals on a national or global scale that capture the imagination and demand advances in innovation and breakthroughs in science and technology. They are an important element of President Obama's Strategy for American Innovation.
"I applaud NASA for issuing this Grand Challenge because finding asteroid threats, and having a plan for dealing with them, needs to be an all-hands-on-deck effort," said Tom Kalil, deputy director for technology and innovation at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. "The efforts of private-sector partners and our citizen scientists will augment the work NASA already is doing to improve near-Earth object detection capabilities."
NASA also released a request for information (RFI) that invites industry and potential partners to offer ideas on accomplishing NASA's goal to locate, redirect, and explore an asteroid, as well as find and plan for asteroid threats. The RFI is open for 30 days, and responses will be used to help develop public engagement opportunities and a September industry workshop.
To watch the archived video of Tuesday's asteroid initiative industry and partner day, visit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5rsJwsyni4
For more information about NASA's asteroid initiative, including presentations from Tuesday's event and a link to the new RFI, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/asteroidinitiative
Russians want 'Satan' missile shield to save us fr...
Planetary Resources Calls on Citizens of Earth to ...
KinetX Aerospace Joins Russian National Research U...
Russians Propose Space Billiards for Planetary Def...
US State Department Arms Contro lHead in the Sand ...


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