NEOShield

A new consortium of universities, research institutes, and corporations in the U. S. and several European nations has been put together to study strategies and hardware required to protect Earth from collisions with near-Earth objects (NEOs)-- asteroids and comets. The studies will be carried out over the next three and a half years, and the point, obviously, is to begin to develop real options before they become necessary.

Taxpayer funded space research is criticized as being a waste of money, but it was precisely that research that established comets and asteroids pose a continuing threat to Earth-- a theory developed during research supporting the Apollo lunar landings. That money may turn out to have been extraordinarily well spent.