B612 Foundation

The B612 Foundation is a private foundation dedicated to protecting the Earth from asteroid strikes. Their immediate goal is to "significantly alter the orbit of an asteroid in a controlled manner by 2015".

The B612 project grew out of a one-day workshop on asteroid deflection organized by Piet Hut and Ed Lu at NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, on October 20, 2001. Participants Rusty Schweickart, Clark Chapman, Piet Hut, and Ed Lu established the B612 Foundation on October 7, 2002.^{[citation needed]}

Schweickart, who is the Chairman of the Board, is the public face of the foundation. Daniel David Durda is the President, Hut the Secretary, and Lu is the Treasurer of B612. Chapman and Geoffrey Baehr complete the foundation's Board of Directors.

The foundation is named for the home asteroid of the eponymous hero of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince. Also inspired by The Little Prince is an asteroid discovered in 1993, though not identified as posing any threat to Earth impact, named 46610 Bésixdouze: The numerical part is the hexadecimal number 'B612' translated to decimal, while the textual part is French for "B six twelve".

Financial status

The B612 Foundation is a California 501(c)(3) non-profit, private foundation. Financial contributions to the B612 Foundation are tax exempt. Its principal offices are in Tiburon, CA.

See also

• Spaceguard
• NEOShield
• Asteroid deflection
• 99942 Apophis

External links

• B612 Foundation
• Geoffrey Baehr bio
• Clark R. Chapman bio
• Daniel David Durda bio
• Pier Hut bio
• Edward Tsang Lu
• Russell L. (Rusty) Schweickart bio
• In Defense of Earth Keeping Asteroids at a Distance
• The Asteroid Tugboat: To prevent an asteroid from hitting Earth, a space tug equipped with plasma engines could give it a push By Russell L. Schweickart (from Scientific American)