NASA Confirms It Has No Options For Sudden Strike Meteors

If the meteor that recently struck the Russian city of Chelyabinsk had you worried, this news is not going to help your situation. A Tuesday hearing in DC had members of Congress asking NASA, White House, and Air Force officials what was being done in response to the threat of "near-Earth" asteroids.

The answer? Not much.

"If it's coming in three weeks, pray," said NASA administrator Charles Bolden, when asked by Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) what the organization would do if a large asteroid was on a three week collision course.

"The reason I can't do anything in the next three weeks is because for decades we have put it off," Bolden continued.

Back in 2005, Congress asked NASA to find, log, and track at least 90% of the near-Earth asteroids larger than 87 miles. Bolden expressed his uncertainty with the Space Administration's ability to meet that goal.

"Our estimate right now is at the present budget levels it will be 2030 before we're able to reach the 90 percent level as prescribed by Congress," Bolden stated. Concerning the delay, he criticized lawmakers for the routine funding cuts that have hampered the organization's ability to operate. "You all told us to do something, and between the administration and the Congress, the bottom line is the funding did not come," he said.

Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the Science, Space and Technology Committee, stated it was "not reassuring" to find out that NASA's work has so far only resulted in detecting about 10% of near-Earth objects wider than 87 miles across. John Holdren, science advisor to the White House, estimated that there may be hundreds of thousands of objects this large within one-third of the distance from Earth to the sun.

"The odds of a near-Earth object strike causing massive causalities and destruction of infrastructure are very small, but the potential consequences of such an event are so large that it makes sense to take the risk seriously," Holdren concluded.