Annual Progress Report Volume One 2015
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Photograph by Ed Lu
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Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. – Margaret Mead
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Photograph by Ed Lu
Letter from the CEO B612 Foundation (B612) has grown in the last year, with thanks to our partners - the planetary defense community and you, our dedicated donors. Nowhere was this more evident than at the first annual Asteroid Day on June 30, which we co-founded with several organizations. Ed Lu CEO and Co-Founder
Asteroid Day is just one example of our expansive public awareness efforts. The event was co-hosted live from both San Francisco and London, featured more than 100 world-class science panelists, supported additional events in locations all across the globe, and generated thousands of mainstream news articles, reaching 4 billion people across the globe. In addition, the 100X Asteroid Declaration has been signed by more than 100 industry-leading signatories and by citizens worldwide from at least 108 countries. Concerning our ongoing science and technology efforts, work on Sentinel continues to make noteworthy progress. We’ve confirmed that Sentinel can, in fact, help us achieve our organizational goal of protecting the Earth from dangerous asteroids. It will do an effective job at detecting numerous smaller (45 to 100 meters) asteroids that can strike our planet with the energy of a nuclear weapon. Â
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Letter from the CEO / Mission Statement
There has also been tremendous progress in the broader field of planetary defense. As we reported just a few weeks ago, NEOCam, NASA’s proposed infrared telescope, has been selected as one of five finalists in the NASA Discovery program for potential flight selection. While it is far from certain that NEOCam will receive the go-ahead from NASA next year, we believe this is a positive step for the field of planetary defense (in addition to last year’s approval of National Science Foundation funding for LSST). Our vision of making planetary defense a reality continues to motivate us. Thank you so much for your continued support and partnership. At B612, this last year has further convinced us that if a small group of committed people can change the world, a large group – working together – can save it. To Our Future,
Ed Lu Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder B612 Foundation
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B612 History
Photograph by Ed Lu
B612 History The View from Above Seeing the world from a different perspective inspired astronauts Ed Lu and Rusty Schweickart to embark on a mission to protect the Earth from asteroids. Ed’s view was from aboard the International Space Station, more than 200 miles from Earth, and Rusty’s was from the Lunar Module on its first test flight in Earth orbit. Observing our tiny blue planet in the giant cosmic shooting gallery of our solar system highlighted the potential danger of asteroid impacts. Observing our crater-covered moon up close highlighted the results of those impacts.
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B612 History
Houston, Let’s Solve a Problem In October of 2001, Ed and Rusty met with Piet Hut, Clark Chapman, and 20 top scientists at Houston’s NASA Johnson Space Center. The goal was to seek ways to protect the Earth from asteroid impacts. The conclusion was that the technology required to predict and prevent
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A known threat that can potentially destroy millions of lives AND be predicted ahead of time, AND be prevented, cannot responsibly go unaddressed. - Rusty Schweickart
asteroid impacts was feasible. And the result was the founding of B612 in 2002.
Education and Advocacy + Science and Technology In its first decade, B612 was a founding sponsor of the first Planetary Defense Conference (PDC) held in 2004, and sponsored each of the five annual international PDCs that followed. We advocated globally for increased asteroid detection capabilities, which led, in part, to the US Congress in 2005 calling for NASA to find and track asteroids larger than 140 meters. The team itself addressed the complexities of asteroid deflection and developed several concepts, such as the Gravity Tractor, that are accepted today as standard techniques to prevent an impact. B612 also tackled a different set of complexities: the international decision-making and policy processes required to implement an
Ed and Rusty testifying
effective asteroid deflection program. The team wrote the paper, “The Need for a United Nations Asteroid Deflection Treaty to Establish a System for Trustworthy Mission Design and Execution,” which helped establish the UN’s Association of Space Explorers’ (ASE) International
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B612 History
Panel on Asteroid Threat Mitigation, and led to the UN’s General Assembly approval of specific measures to prevent asteroid disasters. On Earth Day in 2014, B612 released the 90-second long Asteroid Impact Video, showing viewers how frequently we get hit by sizeable asteroids. Using 13 years of newly released data from the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Organization, the video shows that multi-kiloton TNT-equivalent asteroid impacts occur about twice a year. The video, used extensively by the press, has been translated into Chinese and Spanish, and has more than 2.5 million views worldwide.
The Eye in the Sky In early 2012, Ed Lu delivered a Tech Talk at Google, describing B612’s work in asteroid deflection research. He also mentioned the hold-up to successful deflection: the absence of detection. Although NASA had located the rare 1 kilometer asteroids, there were currently
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Sometimes you have to be a little crazy to make things happen. - Dr. Ed Lu
no telescopes that could pinpoint the more numerous smaller asteroids that present a threat to Earth. After the talk, an employee asked Ed, “Why don’t you build the telescope?” When Ed politely pointed out that the $250+ million price tag was slightly outside his budget, the man offered a different perspective: private donations. “If supporters of a San Francisco museum can raise $450 million for a new wing,” he said, “the people of the world can raise enough to save the planet.” That night, Ed called Rusty Schweickart to share the unprecedented idea, and on June 30, 2012 (the anniversary of the Tunguska asteroid impact), B612 announced the Sentinel Mission. Partnering with Ball
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B612 History
Aerospace, B612 began plans to build, launch, and operate an infrared space telescope to detect asteroids – the first private-sector deep space mission.
Spreading the Word and Engaging the World Most recently, on June 30, 2015, B612 combined its work in education, advocacy, science, and technology by co-founding the first annual international Asteroid Day. Featuring premier events at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and the Science Museum in London, Asteroid Day activities were hosted by volunteer organizations and individuals at over 100 sites in more than 33 countries around the world. Although B612’s origination was the work of a few, its continued success is the work of many. We look forward to continuing to join with others across the planet to spread the word and engage the world in protecting the Earth from asteroids. To learn more about our years of education, advocacy, science, and technology, visit the Archives on our website: www.b612foundation.org.
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Program Evolution
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2001 Workshop at NASA Johnson Space Center on asteroid deflection
2002 Formation of the B612 Foundation with the stated goal of “significantly altering the orbit of an asteroid in a controlled manner by 2015�
2004 Apophis debate 2004-2008
2005 Invention of the Gravity Tractor NASA successfully flies Deep Impact mission (kinetic impactor on comet but similar in many ways to a kinetic impactor for asteroid deflection) Congress gives NASA the goal of finding 90 percent of NEOs larger than 140 meters (George E Brown Act)
2008 B612 Foundation funds mission design study at JPL showing feasibility of Gravity Tractor mission
2012 Open letter to NASA on need for deflection mission planning and follow up meetings regarding potential impact of asteroid 2011 AG5
2013 Sentinel passes its first major technical review in 2013
2014 UN Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and General Assembly passes resolution creating International Asteroid Warning Network
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Spreading the Word and Engaging the World This past year, the entire B612 team was busy spreading the word and engaging the world in nearly every conceivable forum. Here are some highlights:
Publications · Mission Director, Harold Reitsema and Mission Scientist Marc Buie published a landmark paper titled “Sentinel Mission Performance for Surveying the Near-Earth Object Population,” highlighting the conclusions of recent computer modeling that confirms that the Sentinel satellite can be twice as effective as current telescopes. The paper is available on our website (www.b612foundation.org) as both a 2-page document and an infographic poster.
Presentations · Harold presented the findings of the Sentinel paper at the 4th International Academy of Astronautics Planetary Defense Conference (PDC) in Frascati, Italy, and at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas. · Rusty Schweickart was a Keynote Speaker at the 13th Hypervelocity Impact Symposium (HVIS) in Boulder, Colorado, discussing asteroid impact and planetary defense technology.
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Spreading the Word and Engaging the World
Speaking Engagements · Ed Lu covered the gamut this year, from private salons in various cities, to corporate lecturing at companies such as Microsoft and NVIDIA, to special appearances at the Museum of Flight in Seattle and the Perot Museum in Dallas, to public talks at The Commonwealth Club and astronomy lectures in the San Francisco area. · An additional TED talk was delivered in Vancouver by B612’s former Vice President of Strategy, Valerie Conn. · The What’s Up? In Space! series featured Mission Scientist Marc Buie, Program Architect Scott Hubbard, Sentinel Program Manager John Troeltzsch, and Strategic Advisor and science writer David Brin.
In the Media We had a tremendous amount of press in the last year. We’ve highlighted just a few below. · Newsweek’s article, “We Can Save Ourselves From Earth-Killing Asteroids, but Someone Has to Pay,” featured Rusty Schweickart. Newsweek Magazine’s excellent cover story focuses on the asteroid issue from many angles, including interviews with B612’s Ed Lu and Asteroid Day’s Science Advisor Rusty Schweickart. · Vice.com’s article, “The Sluggish Race to Guard the Earth Against Meteors,” featuring Ed Lu and discussing why Ed Lu and B612 have taken on the task of detecting and mapping near-Earth objects. · IEEE Spectrum’s article, “Sentinel’s Mission to Find 500,000 NearEarth Asteroids,” was written by B612 Mission Director Harold Reitsema and highlights how the Sentinel Mission could go a long way toward finding asteroids on collision courses before they pose a danger to Earth.
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Spreading the Word and Engaging the World
Special Events Asteroid science met pop culture at two significant events this year: · Scott Hubbard joined Bill Nye the Science Guy and the StarTalk Live! team at the Nourse Theater in San Francisco as part of the Sketchfest Comedy Festival. · The documentary film Disaster Playground follows experts in the monitoring and deflection of hazardous asteroids and real-life procedures in the event of an asteroid collision with Earth, and features Rusty Schweickart. The film premiered at the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, where Rusty joined the director for a post-screening Q&A.
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Rusty’s interview for the film was in Caltech’s Natural History Department, and they kicked us out. We had to find a Plan B, but as an Apollo 9 astronaut, Rusty is used to changes. He came up with a new plan at the speed of light. ~ Director Nelly Ben Hayoun
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And our biggest event of the year:
Asteroid Day
· This first annual global event began with a joint international press conference, featuring the London team of Royal Astronomer Lord Martin Rees, astrophysicist and Queen guitarist Brian May, and 51 Degrees North director Grig Richters, and the San Francisco team of Ed Lu, Rusty Schweickart, and astronaut and B612 Strategic Advisor Tom Jones. · The premier events were held jointly in London and San Francisco on June 30th, the anniversary of the Tunguska asteroid in 1908, and featured a world-class gathering of scientists, astronauts, and other space enthusiasts. · In addition, 100+ self organized events were hosted by organizations and volunteers in over 33 countries around the world.
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路 Social media was abuzz about asteroids that day: #AsteroidDay trended on Twitter and Facebook for five days, including an Asteroid Day greeting tweet from astronaut Scott Kelly aboard the International Space Station. 路 TV host Jimmy Kimmel even chatted up Asteroid Day on his show. 路 To date, the 100X Asteroid Declaration, which calls for a rapid hundred-fold (100X) acceleration of the discovery and tracking of Near-Earth Asteroids to 100,000 per year within the next ten years, has been signed by general supporters from more than 100 countries around the world. 路 Asteroid Day activities had over 4 billion media impressions in print and broadcast news. This was made possible by over 30 astronauts participating in the global effort with thanks to the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) and Discovery Channel dedicating ten days of programming to Asteroid Day. 17
Spreading the Word and Engaging the World
Sentinel Update This year, our Sentinel technical team discovered new optimizations of Sentinel’s capabilities, and we continue to believe that Sentinel is the best technical solution to the asteroid discovery problem. We completed the first stage of the Sentinel Mission: a series of technical studies and prototype hardware demonstrations called the Concept Phase. This included assembling a world-class technical and management
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team, creating a
The deployment of Sentinel is a welljudged and prudent ‘insurance policy,’ helping to safeguard life’s future on Earth. More than that, the concept of a philanthropically sponsored project is a model for future space ventures. ~ Lord Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, B612 Strategic Advisor
comprehensive plan, building key partnerships with NASA and Ball Aerospace, and successfully passing the first major technical review – all of which was accomplished with privately raised funds. Another key element was the formation of the Sentinel Operations and Data Analysis (SODA) working group. The group has already
constructed a software model to guide observatory operations. This modeling along with independently contracted research by Ball Aerospace demonstrate that Sentinel’s capabilities greatly surpass
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Spreading the Word and Engaging the World
the George E. Brown, Jr. Congressional mandate to detect asteroids down to 140 meters in diameter. The modeling indicates that Sentinel will successfully locate asteroids as small as 45 meters, the size of the Tunguska asteroid in 1908 – the holy grail of planetary defense. Read more about Sentinel’s progress on our website (http://sentinelmission. org). 2015 saw tremendous advances in B612’s education, advocacy, science, and technology efforts. We look forward to partnering with you again in 2016 as we continue to spread the word and engage the world in planetary defense.
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Legacy should be more than what we do for our families. The Sentinel mission is an opportunity to address a knowable and tangible threat to our civilization. Technology for technology’s sake is interesting. A mission to save the planet is riveting. ~ Suzanna Mak, B612 Donor
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Sentinel is a rare opportunity to directly support a scientific endeavor whose potential to alter the course of history for the better is absolutely clear. ~ David Whitney, B612 Donor
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Assisting the greatest scientific minds on the planet to save our planet is the most worthy venture I can imagine during my lifetime. ~ Y. Chapman, B612 Donor
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Founding Circle
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*Anonymous+++++
Sasha Galitsky
Bill Anders
Eliot Gillum
Geoffrey Baehr
Dane Glasgow
William K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation
Steve and Julie Grimm
Brian Burton and James Mercer
Garrett Gruener and Amy Slater
Don and Alison Carlson
VK Hsu & Sons Foundation Ltd.
Vinton and Sigrid Cerf
James D. and Justin Jameson
Esther Dyson
Margaret Jonsson Family Foundation
Alan Eustace
*Steve Jurvetson
Glaser Progress Foundation
Dominik Kaiser
Steve Krausz
The Peggy Rawls Family Fund
James Leszczenski
Ray Rothrock
David Liddle and Ruthann Quindlen
Edwin Sahakian
Suzanna Mak and Asa Denton
Rusty Schweickart and Nancy Ramsey
Greg McAdoo
Tim Trueman
Scott McGregor and Laurie Girand
Robert C. and Fallon B. Vaughn
Matt Mullenweg
Ben Wheeler
Diane Murphy
Yishan Wong and Kimberly
Peter Norvig Shervin Pishevar
Algeri-Wong *Signifies Leadership Gift of $1MM - $5MM
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Donor Honor Roll ALL GIFTS $500 - $24,999
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We have donors from 43 countries
21st Century Frontiers
Dmitry Chichkov
Joseph L. Fischer
Michael A’Hearn
John Conery
David Flowers
Rick Armstrong
Jonathan Coon
Fontana Foundation
Atlantis Research Foundation
David and Nathalie Cowan
Philip Fung
Marc Banetrivet
Alexander Curtis
V. Jacob Garbin
Robert Barrack
Carl Curtis
Ron and Nancy Garret
Gary Berner
Jonathan Dagle
Patrick D. Garvey
Bob Berry
Benjamin Davenport
Thomas Gavin
Will and Margaret Betchart
Davidow Family Foundation
Joseph Geddes
Bob Bishop
Barry and Barbara DeBoer
Michael S. Gendler and Jessica A. Teich
Dillon and Alex Bly
Wayne Dejong and Elizabeth Erdos
Stuart and Marilyn Gillard
Jim Bodenstedt
John Dickinson
Arthur Gleckler and Kristine Kelly
Richard Bowen
Alan Doak
Brent Goldman
Rick Bradford
DOLA LLC
Simon Grant
Broadcom Corporation
Heinz Dueffer
Daniel Greve
Alexandre Busset
John Dunning
Rex Groves
John Carter
Erik Edwards
Michael Grund
Paul Carter
Albert Ender
Matt Guerreiro and Christina Mohr
John Casani
Essence Printing, Inc.
Cedric Gysel
Daniel Ceperley
Richard C. Evans
Andrew Harmsworth
Y. and Clark Chapman
Ryan Falor
Derek and Susan Hine
Jim Chervenak
Kevin Fayle
Holland & Hart, LLP
Chervenak-Nunnalle Foundation
Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund
Craig Hrynchuk
Visoth Chhiap and Maribeth Lewis
Scott Fields
Jacob Hubert
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Donor Honor Roll
Keith Hughes
Chris Miller
Joseph A. Shepard
Jeremy Hylton
William Moates
The Shira Charitable Fund
Tomasz Jackiewicz
Kieran Morrill
Skate One Corporation
Arnold Jacob
Markus Michael Mueller
Kevin Stafford
Robert Jedicke
Jonathan Nagin
RIck Stawicki
Paul Jeffries
Richard and Susanna Nash
Reginald Stolley
Frederick Johnson
Dave Newbower
Daniel and Karen Swanson
Tim Johnson
Jon and Sigrin Newell
Benyang Tang
Paul Jones
Bill Nye
Robert Taylor
Brad Jordan
William Ogletree
William and Heather Terrell
Jawed Karim
Joe Orr
Donna and Thor Thorson
Kenneth Keller
Sherman Page and Sandhya Devi
Dennis Tito
Joel and Joy Kellman
Dave Parsons
Jan Magne Tjensvold
Orr Kelly
Vincent Pawlowski
Sigrin and Jim Torson
Daniel Kingsbury
Christopher Payne
John Troeltzsch
Vladas Lasas
Jim Perry
Newell Troup
Daniela Lazarjan
Polk Bros. Foundation
Varian Family Fund
Antonio Leding
Rajan Ponnappan
Alexandra Vedernikova
Yee Lee
Alexander Price
Tristan Vincent-Philpot
Michelle Levell
Christian Principi
James and Cynthia Walker
Price Lewis
The Purdy Family
David Wall
Roger Linfield
Sunny Quach
Rogers Weed
Michael Liou
Simon and Diana Raab
Charles Wen
Rick Lu
Mike Rangel
Magnus Wentzel
Jared Luxenberg
Martha Reynolds
Al Werner
Emmett and Carol MacCorkle
Richardson Family Charitable Fund
Roderick White
Jyothi Madhavapeddy and Prasad
Michael Ritter
Robert Whites
Chakka
Donald Robertson
Axel Whitney
Scott Manley
Kara and Matt Roche
Brian Williams
Benjamin Marcus
Carl Rosendahl
Jon Winston
Joel Marks
Michael Ruhl
Joshua and Kelly Wiseman
Jeff Marshall
Robert Ryker
Wohler Technologies
Septimiu Marzac
Bob Salk
Adam and Kati Wright
John McAuley
Eric Saxby
Will Wright and Anya Zavarzina-Wright
Susan and David McCoy
Joseph Schmidt
Matt Wyndowe
Michael Meek
Scott and Nola Schneider
Doselle Young
John Kenneth Menges Jr.
Rolf Schreiber
Philip Young
Meteor Crater Enterprises, Inc.
Randolph Schweickart
Corwin Yu
Microsoft
Karen Seiter Carteris
Jerry and Janet Zucker 23
Mission Statement The goal of B612 is to protect Earth from asteroid impacts. We do this through: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Preparing studies and analyses necessary to identify, select and deploy technologies and techniques most likely to succeed in detecting and deflecting asteroids on course to impact Earth. ADVOCACY & EDUCATION Delivering to the public information and education advocacy programs through media, public lectures, and other means to reach and inform the general public, the scientific community, and world governments about planetary defense and the best technological solutions against asteroid impacts.
GOVERNING BOARD Dr. David Liddle, Chair Geoffrey Baehr Dr. Clark Chapman Dr. Dan Durda Dr. Ed Lu, CEO and Co-Founder Rusty Schweickart Chair Emeritus TECHNICAL TEAM
OPERATIONS TEAM
Dr. Ed Lu, Chief Executive Officer
Danica Remy, Chief Operations Officer
Dr. Marc Buie, Mission Scientist
Hillary Aiken, Chief Relationship Officer
John Casani, Chair, Sentinel Standing Review Team
Daniel de Zeeuw, Data and Business Systems Manager
Dr. G. Scott Hubbard, Program Architect
Lorenzo Ersland, Director of Finance
United States
Dr. Harold Reitsema, Mission Director
Diane Murphy, VP Public Relations
Phone 650-644-4539
John Troeltzsch, Sentinel Program Manager 24
Heather Pardue, Executive Coordinator
HEADQUARTERED IN SILICON VALLEY Reach us by mail: 20 Sunnyside Ave, Suite 427 Mill Valley, CA 94941
Fax 650-618-1493 www.b612foundation.org