Vigilante asteroid hunters want a private telescope (VIDEO)
Asteroid YU55, taking at run at Earth.
The space cowboys over at the B612 Foundation want one thing and one thing only: to protect and save you from an asteroid attack.
Their mission statement reads, "The B612 Foundation, a 501(c) 3 organization, aims to build, launch, and operate the first privately funded deep space mission – a space telescope to be placed in orbit around the Sun."
The group of former NASA astronauts headed up by Ed Lu, the foundation's chairman and CEO, wants to launch its own space telescope to spot and track small and mid-sized space rocks capable of wiping out a city or continent, according to the Washington Post.
The group claims with the information they collect, they could send early warnings if a rogue asteroid appeared headed towards planet Earth.
"You realize that we have a responsibility to continue safe operations on spaceship earth, and that means protecting humanity," Lu said in an explanation video sent out by the B612 Foundation.
Fox reported that under the proposal, the asteroid-hunting Sentinel Space Telescope will operate for at least 5 years. It would orbit between 30 million to 170 million miles away from Earth. Data will be beamed back through NASA's antenna network under a deal with the space agency.
The group will soon begin fundraising for the multimillion dollar project.
The B612 foundation explains its project in further detail in this video: