Dealing With Dangerous Asteroids

Last month in Germany, an international group of experts on the dangers of asteroids colliding with Earth met to begin the process of creating a multi-national response to that threat. Much of that response remains precisely defining the threat-- finding and cataloguing potentially dangerous Near Earth Objects. The goal is not only to identify those that could possibly wipe out humanity, but also to locate the smaller mountains in the sky that could still produce regional disasters.

As is regularly the case, the political factors involved in this effort may be more complex and more difficult to accomodate than the engineering and scientific factors. Because the strike of a large body could threaten all of us, the whole international community should be involved. Because a failed attempt to shift the course of a smaller body could result in shifting the impact area from one nation to another, all nations that would be in the flight path would have to agree before an attempt to deflect was made. The meeting in Germany was an initial step towards establishing the parameters of such issues.

The experts called for the creation of a group to coordinate the efforts of the world's space agencies in this area. Next year, the United Nations is scheduled to take more formal action.