NASA Funding for Meteorite Study

    On February 15, a meteoroid, which is a chunk of space rock, exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. It was reported that 1500 people were injured, mostly by flying glass. No fatalities were reported, but there was obviously some building damage resulting in the flying glass.
    Within the past few days, Fox News reports that NASA is petitioning the U.S. Congress for funding for meteorite study. Apparently, NASA is following the old adage of "always look for opportunities in any catastrophe".
    If this proposal gets to Congress, I suggest the various Representatives and Senators have a little understanding of meteorites.
    Space junk continually moves through the universe. Most of it is rock but since man's advent into space, there is also considerable man-made debris.
Considering only the space rock, if a meteoroid is more than 32 feet in diameter, it is classified as an asteroid. It is estimated that the meteoroid exploding over Chelyabinsk was about 50 feet in diameter. Therefore, it is considered a small asteroid.
    To complete the definitions, meteoroids that burn up in the Earth's atmosphere are called meteors. Those that allow chunks of solid material to fall on earth are called meteorites. The Chelyabinsk object was a meteorite.
  NASA said it is currently tracking 1379 potentially hazardous asteroids, but it cannot track objects smaller than 1 km in diameter (0.62 miles). It was unable to track the Chelyabinsk meteorite, and will presumably ask Congress for funding to be able to develop this technology. However, what if it could have known about the Chelyabinsk meteorite? Warning the people would not have accomplished much. Perhaps a few could have boarded up their windows to avoid broken glass
  Taking this in its full implication, does that mean the US is unable to detect objects coming into its atmosphere smaller than a kilometer in diameter? I doubt that. If that were true, the US would be obviously susceptible to a surprise rocket attack from outer space. If NASA can't presently detect a meteorite the size of a rocket, I believe the US Military can. If it can, why do we need NASA to accomplish the same thing?
From another perspective let us consider, whether such research and development would be worthwhile, or shall we say cost-effective.
It is estimated that about 500 meteorites reach the earth's surface each year. This means solid material was deposited on earth. How many of these do we normally hear about causing human injury or property damage? In fact, scientists can't find enough pieces to study more than five or six of these events. http://www.express.co.uk/fun/top10facts/378833/Top-10-facts-about-meteors .
  Of the 500 meteorites reaching the earth's surface each year, consider that they range in size from a grain of sand to that of the Chelyabinsk meteorite. According to a study in 1985, a meteorite will hit a human being about once every 180 years. Will it be the size of a grain of sand or much larger?
  Consider further the probability of property damage from any of the 500 meteorites falling each year. Only 3%
of the Earth's land is developed, that is covered by buildings and roads/concrete. What is the likelihood of any meteorite of significant size falling on any of that 3%?
  In these times of already bloated budgets and tremendous national debt, Congress should not give a second thought to any NASA request for funds to study meteorites. There is already the capability to determine when a large asteroid is going to hit the earth with disastrous consequences. We don't need to further refine this to the point where we learn about possible events of insignificance.

The Ryan Budget

    The Ryan budget is no good!
    It increases the size of the Federal government by 3% per year.
    I want to shrink the size of the Federal government.