Emergent on Winning Team for Asteroid Deflection Study
Greenbelt, MD, December 22, 2008
Emergent Space Technologies, Inc. is a key member of a team that is
working with the Asteroid Deflection Research Center (ADRC) at Iowa
State University (ISU) to study and develop technologies for mitigating
the threat posed to the Earth by hazardous asteroids. Founded in
April 2008 by Dr. Bong Wie, Professor of Aerospace Engineering at ISU,
the ADRC team also includes the Ames Laboratory, the Orbital Sciences
Corporation, and the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, among others.
The ADRC team's recent proposal, "Development of Integrated System
Architectures and Innovative Technologies for Near-Earth Object (NEO)
Surveys and Threat Mitigation," was selected from three finalists for
an Iowa Space Grant Consortium (ISGC) award of more than $300,000 over
three years. It is the first asteroid mitigation/deflection research
project to be funded by NASA. The project will also be coordinated with
a study being conducted on NEO surveys and mitigation by the National
Research Council (NRC). Dr. Wie has been appointed to the NRC steering
committee for that study.
"Asteroid mitigation is a timely and compelling topic," said William
Byrd, ISGC director. "I don't know of any other competitively awarded
grants from NASA in this area, so with the ADRC already established,
this is fertile ground for getting in early and developing a strength
and expertise that addresses a high-priority technical challenge."
Emergent's work on the ARDC project is led by Brent Wm. Barbee. Mr.
Barbee has been studying asteroid deflection for 7 years and is a
nationally recognized expert in NEO deflection technology and mission
design. He participated by invitation in the NASA workshop in
Vail, CO in 2006 that supported the creation of the report delivered to
Congress by NASA regarding available options for deflecting hazardous
NEOs. He has also been an invited speaker on the topic of protecting
Earth from NEOs at the 2007 Planetary Defense Conference, at the NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), at the 2007 Aerospace Technology
Working Group (ATWG) Meeting, and at the Space Frontier Foundation's
Annual NewSpace conference in 2008. Mr. Barbee has developed an
ensemble of software tools for performing efficient NEO mission
trajectory design, for computing maximal impulsive deflection of NEOs,
and for generating feasible NEO rendezvous trajectory sets that enable
spacecraft missions to tour multiple NEOs.
Contacts:
George Davis, President, Emergent Space Technologies, Inc.
george.davis AT emergentspace.com
Dave Gaylor, Vice President, Emergent Space Technologies, Inc.
dave.gaylor AT emergentspace.com
Brent Wm. Barbee, Aerospace Engineer
brent.barbee AT emergentspace.com
Bong Wie, Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Iowa State University
bongwie AT iastate.edu
William Byrd, Iowa Space Grant Consortium
wbyrd AT iastate.edu
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