Check Out NASA’s SXSW Booth and Learn About Tiny Asteroid-Hunting Satellites

There’s a lot going on at SXSW including this booth by NASA to let tradeshow attendees know that space is still out there. We took a quick look at the booth and learned about how NASA is planning on protecting us all from asteroids.

Check out our photos below.

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We’ll have more on the chipsat program soon, but the basic plan is to launch hundreds of these tiny satellites into orbit and use them to better track, monitor, and gauge the size of potentially dangerous asteroids. NASA has their sights set on any object 30 meters or larger, though asteroids even smaller than that can still be dangerous as the world saw when a 17-20 meter asteroid exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia.

If you want a better look at that 3D-printed asteroid, here’s a quick video with the NASA rep explaining how chipsats will more accurately map the electromagnetic field of these objects than has ever been done before.

(via NASA, images via my own)

Meanwhile in related links

• An asteroid passed by us within the distance of the Moon the other night
• Followed by another, even closer, asteroid
• Watch a meteor impact on the Moon