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Shoemaker Near-Earth Object Grant Program
April 17, 2013
Just Announced the 2013 Shoemaker NEO Grant Recipients
There were 16 proposers from 10 countries with five winners (of those, 3 are previous Shoemaker NEO winners) receiveing $34,307!
To find and track near-Earth objects (NEOs) to determine which -- if any -- pose a threat to our world, The Planetary Society has established the Gene Shoemaker Near Earth Object Grants. Shoemaker grants are awarded to amateur observers, observers in developing countries, and professional astronomers who, with seed funding, can greatly increase their programs' contributions to NEO research.
Grant recipients have played critical roles in tracking small asteroids that were discovered by major asteroid survey programs, and providing the crucial follow-up observations to determine precise orbits for these objects. They have also contributed NEO discoveries and characterizations of the properties of NEOs. Through these observations and others, supported by Society members and their donations, the Society is playing an active role in helping to ‘retire’ some of the risk of impact from NEOs and to reveal the properties of these interesting and valuable targets for future exploration.
The program honors pioneering planetary geologist Gene Shoemaker, who did so much to help us understand the process of impact cratering on the planets and the nature of the NEO population, and seeks to assist amateur observers, observers in developing countries, and under-funded professional observers contributing to vital NEO research.
Since founding the grant program in 1997, The Planetary Society has awarded 38 Shoemaker NEO grants totaling more than $235,000 to observers from 16 different countries on 5 continents. You can follow the efforts of past grant recipients through their contributions to the Planetary Society Blog and the Planetary Radio podcast.
If you are interested in seeing what the process is for proposing for a Shoemaker NEO Grant, you may see the last round's Call for Proposals for more information and How to Submit a Proposal for submission details, and the rest of this section and this blog for additional background. The last round of proposals was due February 4, 2013.
Project Updates
Updates from Past Recipients of the Shoemaker NEO Grants
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2006/07/18 12:00 CDT
Update as of July 13, 2006 Using the Shoemaker NEO Grant funds, Minor Planet Research has purchased a 1.7-terabyte data server for our Asteroid Discovery Station (ADS) education outreach program Through the generosity of Dr. Philip Christensen, this server is housed at the Mars Space Flight Facility (MSFF) at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.
Updates from Past Recipients of the Shoemaker NEO Grants
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2005/08/17 12:00 CDT
Update as of July 28, 2005 Following last year's Potentially Hazardous Asteroid and a few other non-main-belt discoveries, I looked into what improvements I could make to more efficiently image the sky. The major advance involved the design of a 3-lens corrector comprising 2 stock lenses and a custom lens I made myself.
Astronomers Revise Torino Scale Asteroid Advisory System
Posted by A.J.S. Rayl on 2005/04/20 03:25 CDT
Astronomers have revised the Torino scale, the color-coded advisory system to assess the threat of asteroids and other near-Earth objects (NEOs) to make it easier for the public to understand.
Updates from Past Recipients of the Shoemaker NEO Grants
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2004/04/16 12:00 CDT
Update as of March 24, 2004 2003 was a good year with 50,779 asteroid astrometric observations submitted, including known NEOs and the discovery of a new Aten-class object, 2003 UY12. Based upon the volume of astrometric observations submitted, observatory code 683 was the world's eighth most productive asteroid astrometry station.
Updates from Past Recipients of the Shoemaker NEO Grants
Posted by Bruce Betts on 2001/03/20 11:00 CST
Update as of March 20, 2001 I just wanted to express my appreciation again to The Planetary Society for the Shoemaker Grant. Apogee Instruments delivered the AP6Ep purchased with the grant on 9 March 2001. Critical mass on all of the other components associated with implementing the proposal was reached last week.
More on NEO Grants
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