NASA launched space vehicle OSIRIS-REx Thursday evening, Sept. 8, 2016, in what is to become an epic instellar mission.  

Seven years from now, OSIRIS-REx is set to land in an undisclosed desert with an asteroid sample that is 4.5 billion years old. This asteroid, Bennu, not only holds clues to how the universe began but also is classified as a near-Earth orbiting object.  Now, while this sounds cool to rocket scientists, it is neither appealing to the public nor reflected in our tax dollars — and this is a problem. Bennu, and other asteroids like it, may threaten the very existence of life on Earth.

Bennu was creatively named after the ancient Egyptian God of creation and rebirth.  Egyptians worshiped this deity through art, imprinting the symbol of a heron meant to represent Bennu in their amulets. Today, the interpretation adopted by scientists is much more perilous. According to a Sept. 11  Palermo Technical Impact Hazard  Scale calculation, there is about a one in 2,600 chance Bennu will collide with Earth and cause mass death and destruction — a rebirth of sorts. 

Some scientists have downplayed the threat. According to an Aug. 1 Space article, OSIRIS-REx primary investigator Dante Lauretta proclaimed, “We’re not talking about an asteroid that could destroy the Earth.”  The implications of such a statement reflect shallowness on part of the astronomy community. Is it okay for millions of people to die so long as the human race survives? No. Any risk to human life should be acknowledged. There is a one in 13,000 chance you will be struck by lightning according to the National Weather Service, yet we still teach our children to head for cover during a storm.

Lauretta’s statement also does not acknowledge the overall threat asteroids pose. At any given time, there are thousands of asteroids classified as “Near Earth Objects,” designated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  Ignoring the threat of all potential asteroids is like playing many games of Russian Roulette, but with a 2000-chamber revolver instead of a six-chamber revolver.  While the odds of the former may not seem concerning, the issue should not be ignored. There is increased risk of one asteroid hitting Earth as more asteroids fly by us.  

In fact, according to a Jan. 7 NASA report, “More than 13,500 near-Earth objects of all sizes have been discovered to date — more than 95 percent of them since NASA-funded surveys began in 1998. About 1,500 NEOs are now detected each year.”

Another way to examine an asteroid’s threat is in the lens of Pascal’s Wager. This argument implies it is in your best interest to choose to believe in something you do not if the consequences of being wrong are severe. The example Pascal formulated can be summarized as follows: God either exists or he does not exist. Nonetheless, we should all strive to believe in God because it is more logical to suffer lost pleasure from being wrong than to be eternally damned.  Applied to the threat of asteroid collision, it is better to prepare for the event no matter how unlikely because of its  unfathomably dreadful consequence: the end of all life on Earth.

Furthermore, there are many asteroids scientists are still unable to detect. This ignorance has already come at a cost. According to a Feb. 15, 2013 CNN article, an undetected asteroid hit the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia on Feb. 12, 2013, injuring over 1,500 people and damaging 3,000 buildings. A  Feb. 15, 2013 CBS news report shared a retelling of the event by Chelyabinsk resident Sergey Hametov: “There was panic. People had no idea what was happening. We saw a big burst of light, then went outside to see what it was and we heard a really loud, thundering sound.” 

If the whole wide world ends because of an asteroid collision, I want to at least know about it beforehand.

The main reason why NASA scientists have been unable to detect many asteroids has to do with budget cuts.  Referring to lackluster asteroid detection attempts, Lindley Johnson, NASA executive of the Near-Earth Object Program, admitted, “We’ve done the best we could with the money that’s appropriated for us,” according to a Mar. 26, 2013 Nova Next article.  

In fact, NASA faces a record-low $19 billion budget in 2017, as laid out by the Obama administration. To put this into perspective, NASA spending constitutes 1/20,000  of what we spend on Homeland Security, according to a March 13 PBS article. Furthermore, NASA’s budget has also been steadily decreasing ever since the end of the Cold War.  

The lack of funding has not gone under the radar of everyone. World-renowned astronomist Neil Degrasse Tyson is a vocal NASA activist. He has made countless speeches about the importance of space exploration. Notably, he said in a 2011 Bill Maher interview that “after we stopped going to the moon, it all ended. We stopped dreaming. And so I worry that the decision that Congress makes doesn’t factor in the consequences of those decisions on tomorrow. Tomorrow’s gone.”

The space of tomorrow should be higher up in world priorities. Asteroids specifically pose an avoidable threat but only if scientists are given the funding to study them. The classic movie “Armageddon” depicts this exact scenario — the world being saved by a crew of oil drillers funded by the American government to blow up a potentially catastrophic asteroid. As things are today, we could not actually pull this off. 

We should take every step necessary to preserve the planet and thrive while living on it.  This means paying attention to space organizations like NASA and their funding, especially when their projects involve saving Earth from total, imminent disaster. Let’s keep on dreaming.