Move An Asteroid 2012: International Student and Young Professional Technical Paper Competition
THE DANGER
Thousands of astronomers across the world are on a daily search for undiscovered asteroids and comets, some of which, large or small, may hit the Earth in the future. Thankfully, the kilometer sized asteroids seen in movies that are large enough to cause mass-extinctions are incredibly rare. However, 10 to 100 meter rocks are big enough to destroy a city and hit roughly every 100 years, with the last recorded one 104 years ago (the Tunguska Event). With the latest technology, it is now possible to spot some of these smaller sized objects with enough time for missions to be launched and warnings to be sent out.
THE CHALLENGE
This competition challenges students and young professionals worldwide to come up with original ideas relating to Earth-threatening Near Earth Objects (NEOs).
The goal of this competition is to describe an innovative idea relating to one or more of these three areas:
– The safe deflection of an Earth-bound NEO –
– The detection of NEOs –
– A global impact warning system –
THE PRIZE
All papers will be judged by a panel of engineering experts and the winning entrant will receive a full sponsorship that includes round trip airfare, hotel, and conference registration costs to attend and give a presentation on their concept in Naples, Italy at both:
The Space Generation Congress (SGC) 2012 (27 Sep – 29 Sep)
The International Astronautical Congress (IAC) 2012 (1 Oct – 5 Oct)
