ESAAsteroidDayAmA

(VP) There are ongoing discussions with the international partners of the ISS (NASA, JAXA, Roscosmos) about how to proceed forward. While getting humans to Mars is what everyone agrees should be the next big step, ESA is currently more keen on using the Moon (or rather cislunar space) extensively as our first stepping stone.

(VP) It is! I still pinch myself sometimes.

All publicity is good publicity, even if suspension of disbelief is required for most of them! Please don't get me started on Interstellar! Anyway, apart from Warp engines being a few decades down the line (a man can dream), I don't think anyone can ever feel let down from the real side of Space Engineering! These are arguably the most complex machines we've ever come up with as a species and if you ever see one up close, it will awe you! Not to mention actually being part of building something like that!

(SB) Asteroid resource utilisation is generally considered in terms of supplying extraterrestrial bases, to supply water, rocket fuel etc. The cost of getting supplies off the Earth makes such extraterrestrial resource utilisation at least theoretically competitive, using orbital resource depots etc. To actually return air and water to Earth rather than say the Moon or high orbit would be incredibly expensive. Much cheaper to build desalination plants or produce oxygen through standard industrial processes...

[CR] So far, all information on potential asteroid threats is available publicly on risk lists (webpages) that are maintained by ESA and NASA. Here is ESA's and here is NASA's. On this list you find all sorts of information including estimated asteroid size and impact probability (IP).

(SB) ESA's Advanced Concepts Team, an Agency thinktank, has looked into various alternatives to the standard 'kinetic impact' method that ESA's AIM and NASA's DART missions will (if approved) test out in 2022. For instance, to tether an asteroid with an electric thruster to 'spin it up' until it crumbles due to centrifugal force - http://www.esa.int/gsp/ACT/mad/projects/AsteroidsAndNEOs/centrifugalfragmentation.html Or simply shining reflected sunlight on an incoming asteroid using mirrored mini-satellites to divert its path - http://www.esa.int/gsp/ACT/doc/ARI/ARI%20Study%20Report/ACT-RPT-MAD-ARI-08-4301-MirrorBees-Glasgow_v3.pdf or using a 'gravity tractor' spacecraft whose own mass influences the asteroid's course - http://www.esa.int/gsp/ACT/doc/MAD/ACT-RPR-MAD-2010-GravityTractorOCP.pdf The general rule is that the earlier an asteroid is detected, the lower the energy scale needed to divert it.

As for international visits, if you are at Uni in a Member State there are opportunities (check with ESA Education Office), there are also some international opportunities. Check also with bodies such as the International Space University