[SunkenCiv]

Ping!

[blam]

So, they're gonna try to mess up a good catastrophe.

[KevinDavis]

[RightWhale]

Surveys are fine. Both NASA and several Euro space agencies have been conducting surveys for quite a while. But, action would be necessary at some point. Waiting for a real threat to appear to a survey might well be tragic, in that there might not be enough time to respond with real hardware. If hardware is located in space already, then we might have a degree of protection. If hardware must be developed, then launched, then proceed to an interception in space, years could be lost, and there might not be years to lose. Such development would also be very expensive.

Now would be a good time to build some interceptors like the recent Deep Impact program, but interceptors on steroids, and place them at points in solar orbit. Response time starting from out there might make timely interception possible, and relatively graceful.

Studies and surveys are fine, but kind of academic. Hardware might actually do something.

[SunkenCiv]

Near-Earth Object News & Updates
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/

Asteroid (2005 VO)
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db_shm?sstr=2005%20VO