Actually, right now: Nobody knows. The 2007 Planetary Defense Conference in Washington, D.C. — attended by government, academic, corporate, and a few military folks — concluded that, “No single agency in any country has responsibility for moving forward on NEO (Near Earth Object) deflection, and disaster control agencies have not simulated this type of disaster.” The asteroid/comet impact disaster is hinted at by special effects in the movie “Deep Impact“.

NASA’s job is space research and technology development, so discovery and characterization of NEOs is certainly their business. But the 50-year-old law which established NASA appears to reserve “defense of the U.S.” for DoD. However, in an email to me yesterday, Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart insisted that he’d “like to keep the US/DoD for dealing with enemies…not the natural environment.”

The 2007 Conference emphasized that the NEO threat is one demanding international cooperation. This “…foundation for international cooperation and action in all areas related to planetary defense…may (include) international manned and unmanned space exploration.” This is consistent with our Forecast that NASA will soon evolve into a more international-style body like “Interspace“ where leadership is shared and participation is open to many countries.

Two Air Force officers — Peter Garretson and Douglas Kaupa — suggested last year that the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) could take charge of NEOs. Tracking NEOs is similar to their current space surveillance mission and their focus is U.S. security, not space exploration. Schweickart counters that world trust in U.S./DoD is not high, and “in the international asteroid deflection challenge, trust will be a major factor in whether or not anything is done when we find the first one that needs attending to.”

Although we don’t yet have the answer, this highly visible debate signals enhanced interest and concern about strongly interacting with our cosmic environment; more evidence for our close approach to the 2015 Maslow Window.

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