[meteorite-list] NASA Highlights Asteroid Grand Challenge at World Maker Faire

[Ron Baalke]

September 17, 2013

Sarah Ramsey
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1694
sarah.ramsey at nasa.gov 
     
MEDIA ADVISORY M13-149
     
NASA Highlights Asteroid Grand Challenge at World Maker Faire

NASA is reaching out to a new community for ideas on how to find and track  
potentially hazardous asteroids, and protect the planet from their impacts.  
The World Maker Faire is being held Sept. 21-22 at the New York Hall of  
Science, 47-01 111th St., in New York.

The World Maker Faire is a festival of invention, creativity and  
resourcefulness – the exact qualities NASA is looking for to help in  
solving the global challenge asteroid threats present.

NASA Chief Technologist Mason Peck will be on hand to talk about how Makers  
can help shape space exploration and be a critical player in NASA's  
asteroid initiative.

"Unlike traditional NASA missions of exploration and science, this grand  
challenge is driven by the idea that protecting our planet is an issue bigger  
than any one program, mission or country," Peck said. "For the first  
time, NASA has reached out to industry, academia, stakeholder organizations  
and private citizens for ideas on how to find, track and deflect asteroids.  
These partnerships represent a new way of doing business for NASA and a call  
to action for Makers: join us to become a critical part of the future of  
space exploration."

NASA will offer Makers a chance to program science hardware and learn how  
small, do-it-yourself projects might be used to help track and understand  
asteroids, using their own personal computers. NASA also will showcase the  
Centennial Challenges Program, with winning teams and technology from the  
Astronaut Glove and Sample Robot Return challenges.

Media interested in attending Maker Faire should register online at:

http://makerfaire.com 

Media interested in speaking to Peck should contact Sarah Ramsey at  
sarah.ramsey at nasa.gov .

NASA's asteroid initiative has two parts: the mission by astronauts to  
explore an asteroid and a grand challenge to protect the planet. It is  
included in President Obama's fiscal year 2014 budget request for NASA, and  
leverages the agency's progress on asteroid discovery and study, the Space  
Launch System rocket, Orion spacecraft and cutting-edge technology  
development.

For more information about NASA's asteroid initiative, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/asteroidinitiative 

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