With the recent releases of Battle: LA, Paul, and the forthcoming
Mars Needs Moms, I was tasked with speaking to a real life expert to get the lo-down on all things space, and find out if we earthlings do actually have anything to fear from the stars above! My real life expert came in the form of a man by the name of
Jay Tate. Jay is head of the
Spaceguard Project, which he set up back in 1997 and is now the largest independent Spaceguard organisation in the world. In short, the project monitors potentially hazardous Near Earth Objects, such as Asteroids and Comets and the threat that they pose should they collide with Earth. They do this because we all know what happened to the Dinosaurs! Rather worryingly, until Jay picked up the reigns with his research, there was actually no one in the UK looking into this kind of thing. Following a meeting that Jay had with the Minister Lord Sainsbury in 1999, the Government set up a Task Force on Potentially Hazardous Near Earth Objects. Or was it because of the double header release of Armageddon and Deep Impact in 1998? Jay continues to run the Spaceguard project from the Spaceguard Centre and Observatory in rural Wales. First up, I asked Jay if an Asteroid or Comet were found to be heading in our direction, would we have time to do anything about it... like call Bruce Willis? His answer was no, about six seconds, which is why more research is needed. Jay feels that with better research it may give us more time to do something about any potential collisions. I then asked if we had the time to take preventative measures, then what would our options be? Jay said that there are three things we could do. 1- Sit back, do nothing and accept our fate. 2- Go for the Armageddon tactic and try and blow it up. But that could actually make matters worse and create a shotgun effect, which would send more tiny pieces heading our way and could maybe cause more damage then the single object that was just destroyed. 3- Try and find a way to nudge it out of our path and turn it into a near miss. Jay feels that this is the best option. Sorry guys, we won't need you...
We then got onto the subject of Extra Terrestrial Life and the chances of it actually existing. Jay informed me that it is statistically probable that extra terrestrial life exists, but just when I started to get excited, he went on to say but only in the form of Microbes, which would be most likely to be found under the frozen waters of the Moon Europa. I asked if he thought anything involving Alien life-forms happened back in 1947 with the Roswell UFO incident. He laughed, telling me that as a former military man himself, and knowing many U.S Military men, that it would have been impossible for it to have been kept a secret for so long, so, no. He then went on to say that most UFOs turn into IFOs anyway. I then put to Jay the hypothetical scenario that should Aliens come to Earth, does he think that their intentions would be hostile? Jay said that firstly, in order to make it to Earth they would have had to figure out how to travel faster than the speed of light. This would, of course, then make them the superior beings and, throughout history, inferior beings have always come off worse when faced with a superior Civilisation. We then got onto the subject of the planet Mars and the possibility that, should something disastrous like an asteroid hit earth, could humans actually relocate and live there? Jay said that, yes, in theory, we could, but first we would have to Terraform it, which is a process of modifying its atmosphere, temperature and topography. Jay said that this is a process that would cost a fortune, and would take centuries to complete, but it is definitely a possibility. I finished by asking Jay if his line of work makes it difficult to remove himself when he sits back to watch Science Fiction films. He assured me that he has no problem willingly suspending his disbelief and he thinks that Deep Impact and Armageddon are quite good movies, as long as you ignore the science. Its reassuring, then, to know that even the experts can kick back and enjoy the latest blockbuster! So, I think its safe to say that kids can rest easy in the knowledge that Mars wont be needing Moms anytime in the near future, and that the only battle happening in LA might be Sony firing the producer who thought it was a good idea to green-light spending 70 million dollars on making Battle: Los Angeles. Mars Needs Moms is released in the UK on the 8th of Apri. Here's a clip from the movie; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaCRbfMzrv4 and further information on the Spaceguard Project can be found at
www.spaceguarduk.com.
