B612 Press Conference on Protecting Earth from Asteroid Impacts
The B612 Foundation will hold a press conference at the Seattle Museum of Flight to release new video of data from a nuclear-test-ban-treaty organization showing multiple atomic-bomb-scale asteroid impacts on Earth since 2001.
Date: Tuesday, April 22 (Earth Day 2014)
Time: 11:30 am PDT / 2:30 pm EDT / 18:30 UTC
Location: Museum of Flight, 9404 East Marginal Way S., Seattle, WA 98108
Live Stream: http://www.b612foundation.org
Speakers:
* US Shuttle, ISS, and Soyuz Astronaut Dr. Ed Lu, Co-founder & CEO, B612 Foundation
* US Shuttle Astronaut Tom Jones, President, Association of Space Explorers
* Apollo 8 Astronaut Bill Anders
* Hosted by Doug King, President, Seattle Museum of Flight
In a special Earth Day program on April 22, Seattle’s Museum of Flight will host three prominent US astronauts supporting the B612 Foundation for a press conference to unveil a new video showing the surprising number of asteroid impacts on Earth during the last decade, and the even more surprising fact that we can prevent future asteroid impacts.
“The visualization shows data from the nuclear weapons test warning network, supplied by Peter Brown, Western University of Canada. This network has detected 26 multi-kiloton explosions since 2001, all of which are due to asteroid impacts, explained Dr. Lu, CEO, B612 Foundation. “It shows that asteroid impacts are NOT rare — but actually 3-10 times more common than we previously thought. The fact that none of these asteroid impacts shown in the video was detected in advance, is proof that the only thing preventing a catastrophe from a “city-killer” sized asteroid is blind luck. The goal of the B612 Sentinel mission is to find and track asteroids decades before they hit Earth, allowing us to easily deflect them.”
The B612 Foundation is partnered with Ball Aerospace to build the Sentinel Infrared Space Telescope Mission. From a Venus-like orbit around the Sun, Sentinel will be the most capable system for finding and tracking asteroids ever built.
During the press conference, Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders will unveil a new mural that highlights the importance of the Sentinel mission. His Earthrise photo shows the Earth rising above the crater-strewn surface of the Moon, and will remain on display at the Seattle Museum of Flight. “We began Apollo 8 thinking we were going to learn about the Moon, instead, we began a new understanding of our Earth.” The Earthrise photo will serve as the backdrop for the morning press conference.
Tom Jones, four-time US shuttle astronaut and President of the Association of Space Explorers, will explain the recent UN resolution calling for international cooperation for detection of dangerous asteroids.
The press conference is open to all accredited media. Astronauts Ed Lu, Tom Jones, and Bill Anders will also be available for 1-1 interviews and additional photos immediately before and following the press conference. Please schedule with Diane Murphy (diane@b612foundation.org)
The video showing the new findings of asteroid impacts will be posted at http://www.b612foundation.org immediately following the press conference.
Astronaut Speakers:
Edward Lu — US NASA astronaut who flew three space missions including a stint of six months on the International Space Station, currently serves as CEO, B612 Foundation. He previously led the Advanced Projects group at Google, where his teams developed imaging technology for Google Earth/Maps, Google Street View, and energy information products including Google PowerMeter. He is the co-inventor of the Gravity Tractor, a spacecraft able to controllably alter the orbit of an asteroid. He has published scientific articles on high-energy astrophysics, solar physics, plasma physics, cosmology, and statistical physics.
Thomas Jones — US NASA astronaut who flew four space shuttle missions, currently serves as senior research scientist at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition and chairman of the Association of Space Explorers NEO Committee.
Bill Anders — USAF pilot and astronaut who flew on Apollo 8, the first mission to orbit the Moon, Anders has held numerous high level positions in government, including the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and in the private sector, held executive positions at GE, Textron, and General Dynamics. He currently leads the Anders Foundation. The Anders Crater on the Moon is named in his honor.
Contacts:
Diane Murphy
B612 Foundation
+1.310.372.9867, cell: +1.202.361.9681
diane@b612foundation.org
Ted Huetter
Museum of Flight
thuetter@museumofflight.org
The B612 Foundation (http://www.b612foundation.org) aims to build, launch, and operate Sentinel Space Telescope Mission, the world’s first privately funded deep space mission that will create the first comprehensive dynamic map of our inner solar system, identifying the current and future locations and trajectories of Earth crossing asteroids. The B612 Foundation is named for the asteroid home of the “Little Prince” in the Antoine Saint-Exupery classic novel. The Little Prince came to realize that what is essential in life, is often invisible to the human eye.
