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The article discusses the development of astronomical telescopes with the capability of detecting asteroids, comets, and other near-Earth objects (NEOs). Topics include efforts to prevent meteor impacts like the one in Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013, asteroid detection research and defense strategies, and the Catalina Sky Survey project for the detection of NEOs at telescope sites in Arizona and Australia.

In this article the author discusses why the U.S. National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) should work with other national space agencies and private organizations to create a program that would ensure no destructive asteroid collides with planet Earth. He argues that asteroids may seem like a distance threat, but the hazards are real. He notes that the history of life on Earth has been shaped by asteroid impacts and discusses the importance of prediction in preventing collisions.

In this article the authors discuss how the adaptation of ideas from robotic planetary exploration would enable astronauts, as part of the U.S. National Aeronautics & Space Administration’s (NASA’s) human space program, to travel to asteroids and the planet Mars cheaply and quickly. They argue that NASA engineers need to make plans to address the unpredictability of the U.S. political system by designing mission options that can be revised when circumstances change and discuss the deep space vehicles propelled by ion drives that are capable of mounting progressively complicated expeditions to lunar orbit, near-Earth asteroids, and Mars. INSET: More Than One Way to Reach into Space.

A chart is presented that lists various disasters that could end human existence, which ranges from exceedingly rare to probable, including the eruption of a supervolcano, uncontrolled global warming, and killer pandemic.