The Register and other news sources are reporting that NASA will webcast the landing of its Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR)/ Shoemaker space probe onto the surface of the asteroid Eros today.
Eros is important, among other things. because it is one of about 200 known asteroids which is larger than 1 km and crosses the Earth’s orbit (at its maximum, for example, Eros is never more than 1.78 astronomical units away from the Sun. Mars, by contrast, is about 1.49 AUs from the Sun). Eros sometimes comes within 20 million kilometers of the Earth. If an asteroid such as Eros ever struck the Earth, the impact would release energy equivalent to 240 billion Hiroshima bombs and likely obliterate almost all life on Earth.
The NEAR/Shoemaker probe is a much better use of federal funding for spacecraft. It cost only about a tenth as much as putting a single module on the International Space Station — coming in at about $220 million for construction and launch costs — and will probably yield a lot more information than the ISS. The NEAR probe has been circling Eros for the last year providing a very detailed surface map of the asteroid and collected other data that will help provide more definitive answers to scientific speculation about asteroids.
NASA needs to focus more on truly relevant missions such as the Eros probe rather than simply dreaming up new and expensive missions for the shuttle (which has proven to be a complete boondoggle).