Latest news with #ValerieFoushee
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
US Representatives worry Trump's NASA budget plan will make it harder to track dangerous asteroids
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. On Thursday (May 15), the U.S. House Committee on Space, Science and Technology convened with scientists to discuss a rather exciting topic: What can NASA do if we identify a dangerous asteroid on a collision course with Earth? It was an especially prudent subject given all the recent fuss about asteroid 2024 YR4, which had a notable chance of hitting our planet before scientists refined its position and deemed it harmless. Most of Thursday's conversation surrounded the agency's highly anticipated Near-Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor mission, which should greatly improve hazardous asteroid detection capabilities as a whole. However, there were also many efforts to address the elephant in the room: the Trump administration's recently announced intention to slash NASA's top-line funding by 24% for the upcoming fiscal year. The proposed cut to the agency's science programs — which includes its planetary defense work — is even deeper, at 47%. Outlined in the White House's "skinny budget proposal," as it's called, the top-line reduction would be the "largest single-year cut to NASA in American history." "If enacted, the Trump administration's skinny budget proposal risks putting NASA on a path to irrelevance," Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-North Carolina) said during the hearing. "It threatens our economic and national security, surrenders U.S. leadership and space to our adversaries, and jeopardizes our competitiveness and standing on the world stage. That's a strategic posture I simply cannot accept." The NEO Surveyor mission is the first space telescope that'll be dedicated to locating asteroids that could threaten Earth, NASA says. It's the agency's next big step in upping the nation's planetary defense game, which was really brought to the forefront for the public in 2022 with the DART mission. DART, which stands for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, sent a spacecraft to smash into an asteroid called Dimorpohos. Dimorphos orbits a larger asteroid, called Didymos. Neither threatened us, to be clear, as this was just a proof-of-concept mission. The goal was to see whether this impact would adjust Dimorphos' trajectory around Didymos; if so, it would suggest that a spacecraft can one day be sent to an actually threatening asteroid to knock it off a potential collision course with Earth. DART worked beautifully, but it could use a little help. NEO Surveyor is more of a prophylactic measure for planetary defense. It'll be the thing that spots the asteroid we may want to smash a future DART craft into. "We do not know of any sizable object that has a significant risk of impacting Earth in the next 100 years — however, there are a lot more to be found," Nicola Fox, the associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said during the hearing. "The mission will improve NASA's ability to discover and then define the sizes and the orbits of the NEOs to understand the hazard they actually pose to us," she added. "Finding those potentially hazardous asteroids remains a top priority for NASA's planetary defense program." One of the most promising aspects of NEO Surveyor is the fact that it'll be able to pinpoint NEOs by way of infrared detection. Infrared wavelengths aren't visible to human eyes and most human technology; they're usually thought of as heat signatures. Firefighters, for instance, can use infrared wavelengths to understand fire distribution in a burning building. This detection strategy should yield a higher target hit rate when compared to traditional methods, which are usually based on whether sunlight reflects off an NEO. In fact, an issue with relying purely on sunlight for NEO hunting was illustrated with the Chelyabinsk asteroid that exploded over Russia in 2013, which damaged many buildings and injured over 1,000 people. "The blast released energy equivalent to about 440 kilotons of TNT, more than 30 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb, shattering windows, injuring thousands and causing millions of dollars in property damage in Russia. Because the asteroid approached from the direction of the sun, it was undetectable by ground-based telescopes and went untracked," Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), who currently serves as the chairman of the House Committee on Space, Science and Technology, said during the hearing. Though NEO Surveyor still won't be able to detect a possibly hazardous asteroid coming straight from the direction of the sun, it'll enable observations of NEOs super-close to our star, Fox said. "It'll help us find the objects, including the dark fraction of the population, which we think is sort of roughly 35 to 40% or so of the population," Amy Mainzer, principal investigator for the NEO Surveyor mission and a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said during the hearing. "It will also help us measure the sizes, because we can quickly convert the infrared fluxes into a diameter as soon as we get an orbit from the Minor Planet Center … That's such an important component to the impact energy." "We track the orbits of all 38,000 currently known NEOs, including the more than two and a half thousand potentially hazardous ones, and an impact by any one of those would be devastating," Matthew Payne, director of the Minor Planet Center, said during the hearing. Fox said that NEO Surveyor should be ready to launch by 2028, perhaps sooner, but that is of course assuming the mission gets the funding it needs. "Passback documents" — a sort of preview of the White House's 2026 budget request— suggested that the proposed cuts could lead to the closure of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. The prospect of shutting down such a key agency research facility worries scientists, and it came up during the hearing. Fox was asked, theoretically, what would happen if NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, which plays a vital role in planetary defense, were to be shut down. "If [NASA Ames] were no longer able to do the the the assessment, what we would lose is really the ability to give our sort of early expert advice to [the Federal Emergency Management Agency], which is then responsible for deciding where the perimeter is and what the response is to protect as much human life as possible," Fox said. Payne said that, at present, the Minor Planet Center hasn't been affected by the proposed cuts; Mainzer said she's uncertain how the cuts might affect NEO Surveyor's operations. She also emphasized how expensive it can be to train scientists like herself to lead such an important mission. "We really do have to have the investment and the time that it takes to learn the science, to be able to do it well," Mainzer said. Fox echoed the uncertainty, responding to nearly all questions concerning Trump's skinny budget with the answer that she needs to see the finalized budget before coming to conclusions. "We await the full president's budget so we can see the priorities in the direction on which missions may be supported or not supported," she said. "It's clear that planetary defense leverages many of our federal [science and technology] agencies. Now, whether that federal agency continues — whether that expertise continues — I think, is now in question," Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-California) said during the hearing. Other Trump-instigated orders, like widespread layoffs of probationary employees and deferred resignation programs, are creating a "brain drain," she added. Recent executive orders, for instance, have seen the rapid federal layoffs of over 800 workers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) who monitor natural disasters such as hurricanes and forecast daily weather patterns. The deferred resignation program is a sort of roundabout way of laying off employees, offering them payment through a certain month if they leave of their own accord. "A very reasonable question is whether NASA should, in fact, be spending more money on asteroid monitoring and defense given the catastrophic risk to our country and civilization," Rep. George Whitesides (D-California), who used to work at NASA in a leadership position, said during the hearing. "As several members have mentioned already, our leadership in this area, like so many areas of space and Earth science, are under threat now from the proposed cuts to NASA's budget, as well as the budgets of other science agencies." "We're talking about impacts that can actually wipe out an entire region, lay waste to a country or devastate the planet. And, you know, this is something that we can do something about. Actually, this is a natural disaster that is 100% preventable if we do our homework," Payne said. Related Stories: — Reshaping our return to the moon: Trump's 2026 budget gives Artemis a major facelift — Trump's 2026 budget plan would cancel NASA's Mars Sample Return mission. Experts say that's a 'major step back' — Trump administration cancels lease for NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies lab in New York City Of note, Rep. Foushee asked both Payne and Mainzer how much NEO tracking could improve if artificial intelligence could be implemented in the workflow. Both agreed that training systems with AI would lead to more accurate and more rapid results, but when Foushee inquired how much funding would be necessary to realistically perform such AI implementation, the question was deferred to Fox. "Adequate funding is certainly a major thing," Fox said. Exactly how our planetary defense strategies may be affected hinges on the details of Trump's budget, which have not yet been released. (And Congress still has to enact a budget, which remains a proposal until that happens.) If the White House indeed cuts back on funding for these efforts, Fox said NASA may be able to rely on global partners for hazardous NEO tracking. "If we can't all unite on a large chunk hurtling towards the planet, what are we going to unite on?" Fox said.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
At Pittsboro town hall, US Rep. Valerie Foushee warns of 'constitutional crisis' facing America
Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.) speaks to voters at the historic Chatham County Courthouse. (Photo: Brandon Kingdollar/NC Newsline) North Carolina Congresswoman Valerie Foushee (D-NC4) condemned the Trump administration at a Pittsboro town hall Tuesday evening for carrying out a 'campaign to undermine the very foundations of our democracy.' Foushee was joined by fellow Democrats, Rep. Robert T. Reives II, the minority leader of the state House of Representatives, and Karen Howard, the chair of the Chatham County Board of Commissioners, at a gathering that brought around 100 of their constituents to the historic Chatham County Courthouse for a little over an hour. Unlike high profile town halls held by Republicans around the U.S., Foushee's event drew a largely friendly, if anxious, crowd. Questions focused on steps she and other Democrats were taking to resist the Trump administration's cuts to funding for education, scientific research, and social services. Foushee spent most of the event taking aim at President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress, condemning efforts to 'target our rights, gut governmental protections, defund public education, criminalize immigrants and asylum seekers, weaken worker protections, and slash social safety net programs.' 'What we are currently facing is truly unprecedented. The stakes are high, and the urgency is real. This is a moment where we all need to show up, speak out, and stand together,' Foushee said. 'The American people cannot afford this extreme agenda, and frankly, our democracy cannot afford this extreme agenda either. Our country is facing a constitutional crisis, one that demands urgent action.' She added that she was particularly concerned by threats to the legitimacy of elections, telling the audience that 'nothing hurt more' in the first 100 days than the House passage of the SAVE Act — a measure to require proof of citizenship at polling places that voting rights advocacy groups warn could disenfranchise millions of legal voters. Foushee invoked the ongoing legal challenge by losing state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin as another attack on election integrity. 'We have to protect the right to vote because we know what is coming forward to some make sure that some folk are not given access to the ballot box,' Foushee said. 'We have to stand up against those types of legislation.' Among the audience members who spoke was a teacher at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics who asked what he should tell the aspiring scientists in his classes amid the administration's broad cuts to research and education. In response, Rep. Reives said these efforts are evidence that Republican officials and their donors are 'scared to death of an educated populace,' and that it's critical to stay focused on the importance of education amid attempts to distract from those issues in the coming years. 'There's one group of people in the entire country who are trying to stop everybody else from achieving an American dream, and that are the wealthy billionaires that have taken over your government,' Reives said. 'Somehow, they have convinced themselves that, God help us, if you get an education, if you're healthy and you get a chance to work, that somehow they're going to lose that billion dollars before they die.' Howard, the county commission chair, said the most important thing attendees of the town hall could do is act as 'ambassadors' to their friends and neighbors so that they fully understand the consequences of the election. She invited the NCSSM teacher to bring her letters from his class about what education opportunities mean to them that she can deliver in an upcoming meeting with U.S. Senators Thom Tillis and Ted Budd. 'We need to broaden our tent, and we need to start reaching out to people that can hear us,' Howard said. 'Every single person in every single audience that you ever sit in has somebody that will listen to them, someone who believes them, someone who trusts them.' Reives cited the ongoing tribulations surrounding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as proof that just a few lawmakers willing to resist Trump could make a substantial difference, noting that Tillis cast the deciding vote that allowed him to be confirmed. 'Could you have gotten a better secretary?' he asked, drawing laughter from the town hall audience. After the event, Durham resident Joe English said his respect for Reives was 'greatly improved' after hearing him speak so emphatically about democracy and the crises facing the U.S. 'To see the three of them interplay was phenomenal. This is what I needed,' English said. He said while he would have liked to see more attendance, it was good to see Foushee holding an in-person discussion with constituents — adding that he was pleased when she did not attend Trump's inauguration as a show of defiance. Gary Simpson and Connie McAdams, local activists and members of Pittsboro Presbyterian Church, said they had tried to meet with Tillis earlier in the day but could only speak to a staffer in his office. Though they didn't know about Foushee's town hall in advance, they were able to get in at the last minute. 'I just applaud Valerie Foushee for doing this and giving people a chance to interact with her, and I appreciate her listening and trying to answer those hard questions,' McAdams said. 'Everything is tough, and I appreciate her working as hard as she can in tough circumstances to make things better for all of us.' Foushee's take-home message was that while she and other Democrats can vote against the Trump administration's agenda, it's up to engaged citizens to vote out officials supporting his initiatives and to convince the people in their lives to do the same — a call to action that drew applause throughout the historic courtroom. 'Don't be surprised when that person does exactly what he said he would do. Nothing should surprise you except how quickly he was able to do it,' Foushee said. 'What you can do is to change the faces of the folks in the spaces that determine the future of this generation and the next generation and generations to come.'
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Congresswoman Valerie Foushee on the chaos of the Trump administration, DOGE firings
Congresswoman Valerie Foushee The initial weeks of the second Trump administration have been — to say the least — chaotic. Between the slash and burn firings and funding cuts Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency has sought to impose on everything from Medicaid and other safety net programs to the Department of Education to veterans services to support for university research, numerous vitally important public services have been placed in jeopardy. Thankfully, some elected officials are not standing idly by but instead speaking out and pushing back against the Trump-Musk blitzkrieg, and recently Newsliner's Rob Schofield caught up with one such leader — North Carolina Fourth District Congresswoman, Valerie Foushee. Click here to hear the full interview with Congresswoman Valerie Foushee (NC-04).
