§30902 Charles “pete” Conrad Astronomy Awards

Summary

NASA must create the Charles "Pete" Conrad Astronomy Awards Program to give $3,000 prizes to amateur astronomers. The awards are given each year for work done in the preceding calendar year, and NASA must follow recommendations from the Minor Planet Center. There are two yearly awards (unless no eligible work was done): one for the amateur or group who found the intrinsically brightest near‑Earth asteroid discovered that year by amateurs, and one for the amateur or group who made the biggest help to cataloguing near‑Earth asteroids. Key terms and rules: "Amateur astronomer" means someone whose employer does not pay them to observe asteroids and who is not a professional astronomer. "Minor Planet Center" means the Minor Planet Center of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. A "near‑Earth asteroid" has a perihelion less than 1.3 Astronomical Units from the Sun. Winners must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents at the time of the discovery or contribution, and the Administrator’s award decisions are final.