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BIOHAZARDS - Space Environment...page 2 In February 2013 I queried the United Nations about Near Earth Objects and received an email response from the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs on February 18, 2013. This is the text of that response:
"Given the global consequences of a NEO impact and the enormous resources required to prevent a collision, the UN has been seen as the forum to coordinate such efforts. In 1995, the United Nations International Conference on Near Earth Objects, was held at UN Headquarters in New York. The Conference, organized by UNOOSA, sensitized Member States to the potential threat of NEOs and proposed an expansion of existing observation campaigns to detect and track NEOs." "In 1999, the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III) was held in Vienna. One of the recommendations of the Conference was to improve international coordination of activities related to near-Earth objects. In order to implement that recommendations of UNISPACE III, in 2001 the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) established the Action Team on Near-Earth Objects (Action Team 14) under the chairmanship of Richard Tremayne-Smith (UK), Sergio Camacho, a former UNOOSA Directory currently serves as the Chair of AT-14.
"The Action Team on Near-Earth Objects was given the following terms of reference:
(a) Review the content, structure and organization of ongoing efforts in the field of near-
Earth objects; (b) Identify any gaps in the ongoing work where additional coordination is required and/or where other countries or organization could make contributions; and (c) Propose steps for the improvement of international coordination in collaboration with specialized bodies. I submit that Lagrange points 2, 4 and the lunar environment would be an ideal locations for additional resources to detect and track these objects. Meteoroids are a threat and they can come very small known as micrometeoroids. Evidence has show their destructive force on the International Space Station (ISS), the space shuttles, satellites and other spacecraft. John Hopkins University may have been the first to define Earths orbiting space junk as the orbital junkyard. It is a dangerous place where booster, space debris and even anti-satellite remains exist. In 2007 this junkyard spanned from 400 miles out to 800 miles. It has grown to the point that the ISS with an orbital track of between 259 and 260 miles must at times take maneuvers to avoid it. Currently orbital conditions around the ISS are not as serious as the movie GRAVITY - but there is great potential of reaching that point. More on this topic will be coming. Asynchronous orbits such as the Global Positioning System range in altitude from 6 to 12 thousand miles. Geo sats are roughly at 22 thousand miles. Sun & Magnetosphere The Sun is Earths powerhouse. It cycles through solar minimum when there's very little activity in the way of solar flares, solar holes, and Coronal Mass Ejections to solar maximum when there's an increase of these activities. The Sun is always streaming energy in the form of radiation. Our planets magnetosphere (magnetic field) polarity usually diverts a majority of this radiation around when the incoming energy is of the same polarity. However the Sun is constantly changing and its field switches - this can generate incoming streaming opposite to our field allowing it to punch through. The affect is the same as being hit by a massive CME or nuclear magnetic pulse - overloading powerlines and transformers to the point of failure.
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