[meteorite-list] Calling Serious Asteroid Hunters - New Shoemaker NEO Grant Call for Proposals

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/bruce-betts/20141120-Shoemaker-NEO-RFP-blog.html

Calling Serious Asteroid Hunters
New Shoemaker NEO Grant Call for Proposals
by Bruce Betts
November 25, 2014

Topics: near-Earth asteroids, planetary astronomy, Planetary Society Projects, 
events and announcements, Shoemaker NEO Grants

I am happy to announce a new call for proposals for The Planetary Society's 
Gene Shoemaker Near Earth Object (NEO) grant program.  Proposals are due 
Feb. 2, 2015. The Shoemaker NEO Grants are designed to assist amateur 
observers, observers in developing countries, and under-funded professional 
observers in contributing to vital NEO research. The winning proposers 
typically have existing track records and facilities and are looking for 
a boost to take them to the next level. Past Shoemaker grant winners have 
made tremendous contributions to discovery, follow-up, and characterization 
of potentially dangerous near Earth asteroids using the upgrades facilitated 
by the grants. We are very proud of our program, now in its 17th year, 
and the contributions it has made to NEO research.

This round of grants will continue to focus on improving capabilities 
for characterizing the physical properties of near Earth asteroids (important 
for deflecting dangerous asteroids), and also NEO follow-up observations. 
See the Call for Proposals for more background and more on what we are 
looking for in proposals, and see this page for details on how to submit 
a proposal.  

http://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/neo-grants/submitting-a-proposal.html

See the Shoemaker NEO pages for more on the program, including 
updates on past winners. You can also listen to past winners on Planetary 
Radio.

http://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/neo-grants/

Timothy Spahr, the Director of the Minor Planet Center (MPC) has again 
agreed to be our Shoemaker NEO Grant coordinator. Tim will guide the direction 
of the program and coordinate the review panel that will make recommendations 
for funding. Among other tasks, the MPC, run by the Smithsonian Astrophysical 
Observatory under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union, 
is responsible for the collection of astrometric (position) measurements 
of NEOs and dissemination of those measurements, making Tim the ideal 
person to help guide the Shoemaker NEO grants.