The earth is not the final frontier. And who knows … space isn’t either. But what about protecting our earth from above? Yes, our earth is in danger from an environmental point of view. We need to cut down on the exploitation of the natural resources and we need to gain more insight in the way our planet works in order to sustain a natural equilibrium. We don’t want to end up like Mars or Venus, don’t we?
But our internal struggle of survival on planet earth is not the only danger out there. Asteroids passing by with the possibility of impacting and devestating our planet is one of them and what about an unknown danger that might exist now or in the future ? Is there any way to protect ourselves from that? Is there any way to even detect such a threat?
What do we currently have?
- Outpost telescopes: the Hubble telescope that’s still operating thanks to some important patching done in 2009. This telescope has been for years our sole deep space monitor to discover amazing views on the cosmos and to keep an eye on any possible threats or anomalies. It’s a miracle we can still count on it’s services (and when things go well even until 2030-2040) knowning that its more advanced successor The James Webb telescope was already planned for 2018 but due to some technical difficulties will only be launched into space in 2021. The Hubble telescope was originally funded in the 1970’s and was also cast to launch in 1983 but ended up to be launched in 1990. It is after all delicate and expensive equipment. The video underneath explains the deployment of it:
- Exploration pathfinder Probes: Voyager 1 and 2. We still have contact with both of them while they are already roaming into interstellar space.
