April 20, 2012, 2:51 PM — Ever since the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence pioneered really, really distributed computing by distributing a screensaver that would download tiny problems in radio-telescope data analysis personal computers could finish while the user was away, IT has been a kind of volunteer number cruncher for the space program.
Though NASA usually has a good enough budget and odd enough requirements not to have to ask ordinary citizens for help with its calculations, the budget has been shrinking and number of near-Earth space objects has been growing, both to the point that NASA could use a little help.
It just launched a program called " Target Asteroids!" that is designed to recruit amateur astronomers to help find new asteroids and confirm the trajectories of old ones in time for the launch of a probe that will visit and take samples from an asteroid in near Earth orbit.
The probe mission, called OSIRIS-REx (Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security – Regolith Explorer), is scheduled to take off during 2016 for a trip to the asteroid 1999 RQ36, which it wil reach sometime in 2019.
" Target Asteroids!" (which has to lose that exclamation point or risk being dismissed as suspicious by both spam filters and skeptical IT-brain filters) will provide data on the target asteroid and those OSIRIS-REx will pass close to so the more detailed data from the probe can be compared to observations available from Earth.
To participate you need a telescope at least 8 inches in diameter, a color-coordinated digital camera and a computer with Internet connection and free astronomy software the project can supply. Or, if you can rent or borrow time on a remote-telescope site, that's OK, too, the project's FAQ said.
Here's a list of some of the near-Earth objects that will be examined, and a little more complete data-source with more information about "minor" planets you might want to keep an eye on.
There's no hint that 199 RQ36 will be a dinosaur killer, or that it will even pass close to the earth as a 1,300-foot-wide rock did in November or another will do next February, passing closer to Earth than some of our own satellites.
NASA
