The Peril and Profit of Near-Earth Objects

Dr. Robert Jedicke (U of Hawaii)
Oct. 11, 2023

Near-Earth objects present both an existential threat to human civilization and an extraordinary opportunity to help our exploration and expansion across the solar system. Dr. Jedicke explains that the risk of a sudden, civilization-altering collision with an asteroid or comet has markedly diminished in recent decades -- due to diligent astronomical surveys -- but a significant level of danger persists. At the same time, remarkable strides have been made in advancing technologies that pave the way for a new vision of space exploration – one that involves missions and outposts within the inner solar system fueled by resources extracted from near-Earth asteroids. These objects contain exploitable extraterrestrial resources delivered free to the inner solar system, and they have been naturally preprocessed into objects the ideal size for industrial operations.

Robert Jedicke obtained his Ph.D. in experimental particle physics from the University of Toronto and held post-doctoral positions at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and at the University of Arizona’s Lunar & Planetary Laboratory. At the University of Hawai`i’s Institute for Astronomy for the last 20 years, he managed the development of the Moving Object Processing System for the Pan-STARRS telescope on Maui.

[der_kleine_Toni]

glad to see you again in such a good shape

[cacogenicist]

Not _all_ dinosaurs were wiped out (at least several species of avian theropods survived) and it wasn't only the lineage leading to _Rodentia_ that survived -- and the Chicxulub impactor didn't destroy 90% of species, that was the Permian-triassic extinction. The Chicxulub event only wiped out 75%.

[vernonkroark]

The main difference between Earth water and asteroid water is the fact that the water from asteroids was never dinosaur urine. Most water on Earth was at some point.

[ericsarnoski]

I think i saw 3 astroids moving across the image. 2 on the bottom left and 1 on the top right.