GOLD2023

B612 FOUNDATION

Dedicated to protecting the planet from asteroid impacts.

aka Asteroid Institute   |   Mill Valley, CA   |  www.b612foundation.org

Mission

The goal of B612 Foundation is to enhance our capability to protect Earth from asteroid impacts.

We have done this through:

Science & Technology
Preparing studies and analyses necessary to identify, select and deploy technologies and techniques most likely to succeed in detecting and deflecting asteroids on course to impact Earth.

Advocacy & Education
Delivering to the public information and education advocacy programs through media, public lectures, and other means to reach and inform the general public, the scientific community, and world governments about planetary defense and the best technological solutions
against asteroid impacts.

Ruling year info

2003

President

Ms. Danica Remy

Executive Director, Asteroid Institute

Dr. Ed Lu

Main address

20 Sunnyside Ave Suite F

Mill Valley, CA 94941 USA

Show more contact info

EIN

54-2078469

NTEE code info

Disaster Preparedness and Relief Services (M20)

Physical Sciences/Earth Sciences Research and Promotion (U30)

Safety Education (M40)

IRS filing requirement

This organization is required to file an IRS Form 990 or 990-EZ.

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Communication

Programs and results

What we aim to solve

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

The first step in opening up a new frontier is to map it. A comprehensive map showing the location of geographic features, resources, and access routes has historically been the key to scientific discovery, economic expansion, and DEFENSE. This motivated global mapping expeditions during the Age of Discovery and was why Lewis and Clark were sent to survey the Louisiana Territory immediately after its purchase. One could even think of the ongoing genomic revolution as being enabled by the mapping of the human genome. In a similar vein, our priority for developing the space frontier should be building a comprehensive dynamic map of the inner solar system, including not only the inner planets and moons but the millions of asteroids found there. Government space agencies and private entities should work together to build out this map to spur economic development in space, advance our scientific understanding of the origin of our solar system, and to PROTECT EARTH FROM ASTEROID IMPACTS!

Our programs

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?

Science & Technology

Last year we stated several objectives to support our work to advance the field of planetary defense. We are pleased to report we have made progress towards achieving those goals.

ADVANCE CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGIES FOR ASTEROID DETECTION
The first step in opening up a new frontier is to map it. A comprehensive map showing the location of geographic features, resources, and access routes has historically been the key to scientific discovery, economic expansion, and defense. The Asteroid Institute is advancing work to create a predictive dynamical map, which requires two things - multiple observations of the positions of each object over a long period of time, and the ability to calculate the future locations of these objects using the laws of orbital mechanics.

DEVELOP TOOLS FOR ANALYZING AND ASSESSING ASTEROID DEFLECTION SCENARIOS
The Asteroid Institute program started the Asteroid Detection Analysis Machine (ADAM) project last year, which aims to provide cloud-based infrastructure for large-scale orbital dynamics and related computations that will enable the science and business community to identify, track, analyze, understand, and react to opportunities and threats coming from the asteroids in the solar system. ADAM will provide openness and transparency, allowing others to use it as a baseline for comparison and collaboration.

DEMONSTRATE THE VIABILITY OF SYNTHETIC TRACKING
For the past several years, B612 has supported the development of a new technology for tracking asteroids called synthetic tracking, which we believe can revolutionize the discovery of asteroids by allowing us to track the millions of asteroids too small to be seen by other means. Synthetic tracking compensates for the blurring effect caused by the motion of asteroids, allowing very long exposure times and the use of small inexpensive telescopes for finding these asteroids.

Population(s) Served
Adults

B612’s education and advocacy program accomplishments include our leadership in Asteroid Day and its global broadcast. With the financial and in-kind support of corporate sponsors, Asteroid Day delivered a 24-hour broadcast of educational asteroid programming around the world. Special thanks also goes to NASA, ESA, JAXA, the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, as well as the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Observatory whose participation in the live broadcast expanded the view of the many efforts to discover, observe and track asteroids.

But truly, the 1,200+ independently organized events taking place in 92 countries by regional and local organizers were the heart of Asteroid Day. These coordinators and organizers invested their own time, dedication and passion to create their independent Asteroid Day events. Working with scientists, researchers and teachers in their communities, they shined a light on the experts locally who locally support the global conversation about asteroids.

Additionally, our Team regularly speaks at public events, conferences and schools and universities during the year.

Population(s) Served
Adults

Where we work

Goals & Strategy

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.

Charting impact

Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.

Our goal is to develop tools and technologies to understand, map, and navigate our solar system and protect our planet from asteroid impacts.

Asteroid Institute brings together scientists, researchers, and engineers to develop tools and technologies to understand, map, and navigate our solar system. A program of B612 Foundation, the Asteroid Institute leverages advances in computer science, instrumentation, and astronomy to find and track asteroids.

Since 2002, the Foundation has supported research and technologies to enable the economic development of space and enhance our understanding of the evolution of our solar system in addition to supporting educational programs, including Asteroid Day.

We have assembled a world's class technical and scientific team who are capable and experienced.

It is a historic year for us and for humanity. In the last year, we announced we have officially become asteroid discoverers with the public announcement in The New York Times about our first 104 asteroid discoveries using ADAM and THOR. And, for the first time in history, humans have intentionally changed the trajectory of an asteroid.

Since our community of supporters enabled us to launch the Asteroid Institute, a program of B612, five years ago, our work has focused on building tools and technologies to understand, map, and navigate our solar system and protect our planet from asteroid impacts. This investment enabled us to build out the Asteroid Decision Analysis and Mapping (ADAM) platform as well as the “Tracklet-less Heliocentric Orbit Recovery” (THOR) algorithm that made our asteroid discoveries possible.

Ken Chang said it well in his May 31, 2022, New York Times article when he wrote “What is remarkable is that B612 did not build a new telescope or even make new observations with existing telescopes. Instead, researchers financed by B612 applied cutting-edge computational might to years-old images — 412,000 of them in the digital archives at the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, or NOIRLab — to sift asteroids out of the 68 billion dots of cosmic light captured in the images.”

The astrodynamic services at the heart of ADAM are being developed by our growing team of researchers, software developers, and astrodynamicists, including Kathleen Kiker, Joachim Moeyens, and Nate Tellis. Each has contributed to the new tools running today including Precovery, which allows users to search a set of catalogs for precovery observations of an object, and our Orbital Elements Transformation, which enables users to convert orbital elements into cartesian, cometary, and keplerian component.

This year we have a generous and exciting first-of-its-kind challenge grant to our organization from Tito’s CHEERS program: they will match donations up to $1 million to help us enable scientific exploration, economic development, and the protection of Earth from asteroid impacts.

And finally, this year marks the beginning of B612’s 20th year of operations. Ten years ago, I joined Ed and Rusty, and over that time, our organization has grown, contracted, and pivoted our strategic direction. Yet this year marks two significant milestones: one, the fruition of our work developing tools that allow us to find aste

How we listen

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.

done We shared information about our current feedback practices.

  • How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?

    To inform the development of new programs/projects

  • Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?

  • What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?

    It is hard to come up with good questions to ask people

Financials

B612 FOUNDATION
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Operations

The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.

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Connect with nonprofit leaders

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  • Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
  • Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
  • Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations

Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.

B612 FOUNDATION

Board of directors
as of 07/17/2023
SOURCE: Self-reported by organization
Board chair

Peter Schwartz

Salesforce

Term: 2021 -

Ed Lu

Executive Director, Asteroid Institute, Former NASA Astronaut

Geoff Baehr

Venture Partner, Almaz Capital Partners

Clark Chapman

Senior Scientist, Southwest Research Institute, Department of Space Studies

Dan Dudra

Research Scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, Department of Space Studies

Lawrence Wilkinson

Heminge & Condell

Danica Remy

President, B612 Foundation, Co-founder Asteroid Day, former COO Tides

Garrett Gruener

Founder, Gruener Ventures; Co-founder, Alta Partners; Executive Chairman, Nanōmix, Inc.

Board leadership practices

SOURCE: Self-reported by organization

GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.

  • Board orientation and education
    Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes
  • CEO oversight
    Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes
  • Ethics and transparency
    Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes

Organizational demographics

SOURCE: Self-reported; last updated 7/17/2023
info Candid has made improvements to the race and ethnicity options.

Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.

Leadership

The organization's leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
White/Caucasian/European
Gender identity
Female

The organization's co-leader identifies as:

Race & ethnicity
Asian/Asian American
Gender identity
Male
Sexual orientation
Heterosexual or straight
Disability status
Person without a disability

Race & ethnicity

Gender identity

 

Sexual orientation

No data

Disability

No data