Killer Asteroids!

This from the AP...

"NASA is charged with spotting most of the asteroids that pose a threat to Earth but doesn't have the money to complete the job, a federal report says. That's because even though Congress assigned the space agency that mission four years ago, it never gave NASA the money to build the necessary telescopes..."

Huh?

"It may never get the money, said John Logsdon, a space policy professor at George Washington University."

Why Not?

'"The program is a little bit of a lame duck," Logsdon said. There is not a big enough group pushing for the money...'

Well, why would there be?

"NASA estimates that there are about 20,000 asteroids and comets in our solar system that are potential threats. They are larger than 460 feet in diameter...Rocks between 460 feet and 3,280 feet in diameter can devastate an entire region"

Oh. Anything else?

"Objects bigger than that are even more threatening"[this is actual AP text.]


You don't Say. So, let me get this straight, encapsulate, if you will. There are thousands of threats to civilization as we know it hurtling through space. We have, for the first time in the history of history the means to detect these threats and potentially avert them, but we don't have the money.