The U.S. Air Force is open to the idea of sharing data from its Space Surveillance Network with scientists interested in using that data to search for asteroids or other research, a service official said.Maj. Gen. Martin Whelan, director of space operations for the Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements, said data that the military doesn’t need for its space situational awareness mission could be made available to astronomers.“We collect a lot of data, and a lot of data we throw off to the side because it isn’t relevant to national security,” Whelan said in a talk at an asteroid science symposium here March 26 organized by the Universities Space Research Association and George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute. “Our trash is your treasure.”
In a separate presentation at the symposium, Mark Boslough of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico showed a map of airbursts in the upper atmosphere caused by exploding meteors. He described the data, released just in the last few months, as coming from “U.S. government sensors” without being more specific. It is widely believed, however, that the information comes from U.S. missile warning satellites.Those data showed approximately 550 such events from 1994 through 2013, including the February 2013 airburst above Chelyabinsk, Russia, that released the equivalent of nearly half a megaton of TNT. That single event, Boslough said, accounted for at least as much energy as all the others combined.
“It’s going to be hard for us. We don’t deal with academia and academia doesn’t really deal with the military,” Whelan said. “If there’s utility, you need to start making the noise now.”
The USAF does of course already share some data.
Quote from: Star One on 04/02/2015 05:00 pmThe USAF does of course already share some data.I had an interesting discussion with somebody who was directly involved in the existing/past sharing of data and is a name that many people would recognize. He thinks that the problems with sharing have been essentially bureaucratic, really coming down to the fact that many times people in the military see no value or requirement to actually sharing the data. Yeah, it might help the scientists, but so what? It is just a burden for them.
So are you pleased to see the positive comments in this respect from the Air Force in the article.
Quote from: Star One on 04/02/2015 05:50 pmSo are you pleased to see the positive comments in this respect from the Air Force in the article.Yes. But from what I heard, it may really be a personalities issue, meaning that if some senior USAF leader is talking positively now, when he leaves the cooperation could fall apart. It would be good to find a way to institutionalize that, for instance, by making the delivery of this data a requirement in the rulebook or something. That way when a junior officer gets the request he cannot say "Why should I do it?" He just follows the regulations.When it comes to the asteroid threat issue, the military doesn't want anything to do with that. It's not like they want to take over that mission. And they don't even want to do anything for the people who do have that mission.