I believe that from a bang-for-the-buck perspective, Near-Earth Object monitoring is one of the better values. In the scheme of national budgets, it is CHEEEEEP to deploy a ground-based observatory capable of detecting threatening objects. To wit: http://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/neo-grants/2012da1...
If we have the observatories in place, we should have enough time to come up with a reasonable defense.
I believe if we're wiped out by one of these rocks, it'll be due to our own negligence.
Unless we knew about it literally decades in advance, there is little mankind could do (with today's technology) to stop a miles-wide inbound asteroid from hitting the earth.
If we have the observatories in place, we should have enough time to come up with a reasonable defense.
I believe if we're wiped out by one of these rocks, it'll be due to our own negligence.