Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: NASA OIG

It is a given there there are many unknowns regarding NASA’s science budget in the upcoming years, including funds to continue NASA’s progress in planetary defense.

However, the NASA Office of Inspector General (OIG) has made six recommendations about charting the near-term future:

(1) commit to providing stable funding levels for the Near Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission;

(2) develop a plan to assess how current ground-based observatories can prepare for NEO detection, follow-up, and characterization efforts;

(3) develop a detailed strategy and long-range roadmap for a sustainable planetary defense program;

NAS’s NEO Surveyor. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

(4) develop an appropriate governance structure for the space agency’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) within the NASA Planetary Science Division;

(5) update NASA’s planetary defense strategy to address missing leading collaboration practices; and

(6) review Deep Space Network service agreements to ensure they meet Near Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor’s telemetry and transmission requirements.

Go to this informative NASA OIG report – “NASA’s Implementation and Management of Its Planetary Defense Strategy” – at:

https://oig.nasa.gov/office-of-inspector-general-oig/audit-reports/nasas-implementation-and-management-of-its-planetary-defense-strategy/