NASA TRIES, FAILS TO WITHHOLD PLANETARY DEFENSE REPORT

from www.fas.org

NASA TRIES, FAILS TO WITHHOLD PLANETARY DEFENSE REPORT
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration earlier this year
attempted to block public access to a comprehensive report on
planetary
defense against asteroids, but the document found its way into the
public domain anyway. NASA undertook the study in response to a 2005
Congressional mandate "to provide an analysis of alternatives to
detect, track, catalogue, and characterize" potentially hazardous near-
Earth objects (NEOs) and to submit "an analysis of possible
alternatives that NASA could employ
to divert an object on a likely collision course with Earth." An
abbreviated version (28 pages) of the resulting report, which
generally recommended against initiation of a new planetary defense
program, was provided to Congress and the public in March 2007.
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/171331main_N...rt_march07.pdf
Strangely, however, NASA sought to prevent public disclosure of the
full 272-page report that provided the underlying analysis for NASA's
conclusions. To prevent uncontrolled dissemination, NASA did not
distribute a soft
copy version of the report. And altogether, no more than around 100
copies of the hard copy document were published. Public requests for
the document were denied, though it is unclassified. "The document you
requested was distributed in hard copy as a 'thank you' to [NASA
working group] team members and is not an official, distributable NASA
publication," Marcus Shaw, a contractor at the NASA Office of Program
Analysis and Evaluation, told Secrecy News. "Copies beyond those for
the study team are not available. An
electronic copy will not be distributed or posted by NASA," he wrote
in
a March 13 email from NASA headquarters. In fact, however, the report
is clearly marked as a NASA product and is presumptively subject to
disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. A legal challenge
proved unnecessary, however, as the report soon leaked out through
unauthorized channels. It was obtained by the private B612 Foundation,
an organization that advocates a more pro-active planetary defense
program. ("Our goal is to significantly alter the orbit of an
asteroid in a controlled manner by 2015.") The full document (in a
large 23 MB PDF file) was posted this month, along with the
organization's technical critique of NASA's analysis, he
http://www.b612foundation.org/press/press.html
B612 is the asteroid home of Saint-Exupery's Little Prince.