Yesterday at 1:18 pm Pacific I - and presumably a lot of reporters - received an email advising of something coming up from an outfit called the B612 Foundation. It said that a week from tomorrow it shall host a press teleconference in San Francisco to describe the asteroid-seeking telescope it plans to launch on private money into solar orbit and, it hopes, spot any large rocks on orbits that threaten to hit the Earth at a foreseeable date. Rusty Schweikert is involved. He's been fixed on this problem as one that needs fixing for many years.
Oh, well, that's interesting and my mind raced on. For one thing, I've no customer for such an article, but more important even if I did have a customer I'd just wait for the event. Laziness is me.
Not MSNBC Cosmic Log's Alan Boyle. He whipped out today Asteroid experts plan privately funded Sentinel Space Telescope. First he quotes one foundation guy as saying all details are being withheld till the press conference. But it's not like this is an embargo situation. So Boyle, apparently aware that this idea has been percolating in semi-public for a long time, dug up enough for a story. A few others ran with the announcement - here is one from space.com - but not with the background Boyle provides.
Grist for the Mill: Text of B612 Foundation Media Advisory ;
- Charlie Petit
