An Asteroid Deflection Research Center has been established on the Iowa State campus to bring researchers from around the world to develop asteroid deflection technologies.
“In the early 1990s, scientists around the world initiated studies to assess and devise methods to prevent near-Earth objects from striking Earth,” says Bong Wie, the Vance D. Coffman Chair Professor in Aerospace Engineering and director of the center. “However, it is now 2008, and there is no consensus on how to reliably deflect them in a timely manner,” he notes.