As a result of the explosion of a small asteroid in the skies above Chelyabinsk, Russia that hurt more than 1,500 people and the passage of a larger one near the Earth on that same day in February, NASA is now viewing possibilities of reviving a mothballed Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer or WISE Telescope that will help in discovering asteroids that could collide with Earth, said a senior U.S. space agency official as reported by Reuters.
“NASA is now reviewing options for enhancing its asteroid-hunting efforts including bringing WISE out of hibernation”, said lead program executive Lindley Neil Johnson in an interview with Reuters.
The Russian meteor was alarming and had pushed discussions between the Congress and NASA to work on a program to hunt for asteroids.
Near-Earth asteroids previous recorded by NASA average in 1-km diameter. Asteroids with this size can cause significant changes globally. Just a size of about 100 meters can already endanger humans.
NASA is still preparing for the presentation of the details of the revival of WISE but the Obama administration had already requested for a $20 million budget for the Near-Earth Objects detection programs of the agency in 2014.
Johnson said to Reuters that the WISE can still be revived and be used until 2017. "We think it can be operated for three years and get much more data," she said.
NASA plans to send astronauts based in the International Space Station to these asteroids in the future for scientific studies.
WISE was launched into space in December 2009 to capture photos that the scientists can use to build an all-sky map with its infrared detectors. The photos can effectively present the sky in full details even through thick dust. Another purpose of the space object was to observe the comets and asteroids that travel near the Earth’s orbit.
During its operation, WISE had successfully detected 150 asteroids with 20 of them as possible threats to Earth because of their sizes. NASA suspended its operation in February 2011 as part of the agency’s cost reduction.
