Tuguska was not the last before this most recent one.

As we learned to forecast weather, we were able to take steps to reduce the impact of severe storms, for example by warning people to evacuate or take cover in storm shelters.

The potential impact area for any given meteor is much larger than for most weather phenomena: a track that could be thousands of miles long. The potential area of destruction varies with the size of the object, but could also extend across national borders in most parts of the world.

However, unlike weather which is complex in the manner of chaos theory, asteroids (objects in space; they become meteors when the enter the atmosphere and become meteorites when they hit the surface) are governed by straightforward Newtonian physics, in the manner of billiard balls. In other words, compared to weather, asteroids are a really really simple problem to solve.

The technology to eliminate the threat potential of asteroids is well within present science: the consensus of opinion is that we could use remotely-guided spacecraft to gently nudge them into safe paths that will not cross Earth’s orbit.

Now consider that even a relatively “small” meteorite impact could cause as much death and destruction as a nuclear weapon detonation, and consider the cost expended by the US and other major powers to keep nuclear weapons safe against accidents. It’s clear that the world can afford the technology needed to prevent meteorite impacts. Now that we know how to “detect and deflect” asteroids, it’s a no-brainer to develop and test the technology and put it into full use.

This is an issue of global security, and thus an issue of national security for the US, and this puts it beyond partisan politics.

Each of us, regardless of political party, should write to our Representative, our Senators, and the President, supporting strong international and national efforts to “detect and deflect” asteroids: including the increased funding for NASA, and for the aerospace components of the US Air Force, that will be needed to do the job. Once the R&D phase is complete, we could choose to turn over the deployment to private-sector space companies, for routine launches to rendezvous with asteroids and nudge them safely away.

If we do this, our children will be able to look forward to seeing news reports a few times a year, of rocket launches to carry out these asteroid safety missions. To my mind that’s better than waking up one morning to news that a major city somewhere on Earth, perhaps somewhere in the US, has suffered thousands of preventable casualties from a meteorite impact. (And no, we won’t have to bother with the small harmless ones, so we’ll still have the opportunity to enjoy watching them streak through the atmosphere at night.)