Hi Larry, Nick -

I think this beats my very first lap dance that Cousin Willy bought me for Christmas last year. (The show bars are nude in DC but touching is prohibited.)

I love the comment about funding being no problem - the paradigm shift begins...

You know how long I've been reporting on NASA management's mis-handling of this hazard, and let me tell you, if 2004 MN4 disappears as a threat, with the current discovery effort, another one is going to come along within the next couple of years that is simply not going to go away.

Step one, how about NASA managment raises the $3.5 million per year they spend on detection to something reasonable? Same goes for Russia, ESA. (I believe that Japan and China have adequately funded their NEO astronomers, but then I have not talked with the China staff yet) Everyone here looking for these things has been putting in 80-120 hour weeks for years, and it is way past time that they had some help. MPC particularly needs more staff. I don't know what OKeefe did with his discretionary money, if he had any after Columbia, but giving it to MPC would be the best thing he could do with it...

If 2004 MN4 remains a hazard after further observation, Russia will implement the nuclear interception project which I corrected the English translation of several years back. (Its in the CC Essays)

The US will probably go with Langely's Dr Mazanek's teams' CAPS system, at least the intercept part of it - nuclear powered laser ablation. W Bush's proposal for a return to the Moon could get a real boost here, if NASA management finally gets behind CAPS.

(side note here - in contrast to his reporting on Ames, Cowing's been cheering on the reduction of Langley, who have always been NASA's in-house advanced systems specialists.)

As for the Moon based detector part of CAPS, remember that China's first Emperor was killed by impact. China's already built a world class telescope for NEO detection, and they've announced their strong desire to host the 2006 Lunar Working Group.

Nearly everyone's been wondering what NASA will become, since it is finally realized that Mars is not an easily settled Earth-like planet. How about NASA becomes the lead agency for Planetary Protection? That, along with figuring out how the weather works, improving the air traffic control system, and working on combustion, materials, and communications, should do quite nicely.

This has been a nice taste. If 2004 MN4 disappears as a hazard, then at current detection levels, within another couple of years, one is going to be found which will not go away, and then the meal comes. Then funding becomes no problem - the problem in the meantime will contineu to be keeping the base together until then...

ep