NASA Astronaut Reveals Secret To Protecting Earth From Killer Asteroid [WATCH]

A former NASA astronaut and co-founder of a planetary defense organization revealed how Earth can be successfully saved from a major impact event caused by an asteroid.

Edward Lu is a former NASA astronaut who flew two Space Shuttle flights and once joined the crew of the International Space Station. In addition to being an astronaut, Lu is also known for co-founding the B612 Foundation, a private non-profit organization that is focused on protecting Earth from cosmic threats such as asteroids. Currently, Lu is serving as the director of the foundation’s Asteroid Institute.

Given his impressive background, Lu certainly knows a thing or two about the effect of asteroids on Earth. Since the gravity of impact events vary depending on the size of the asteroid, Lu noted that the focus should be on detecting fast-moving massive asteroids.

“If you have a rock that is, call it the size of a large building, but moving at three times the speed of the Space Shuttle, that’ll take out a large city,” he told Inside Edition.

According to Lu, early detection is very important when it comes to protecting Earth from city and planet-killer asteroids. As long as these kinds of asteroids are spotted before they get close to Earth, proper solutions can be enacted to successfully deflect them.

“Deflecting an asteroid is actually relatively straightforward if you do this more than 10 years ahead of time,” Lu explained. “It turns out that you don’t need to nudge it off its trajectory by very much at all. In fact, a ridiculously tiny amount to make it miss Earth.”

Similar to NASA and the European Space Agency’s plans, Lu said that launching a spacecraft and intentionally crashing it into an asteroid will be enough to deflect it away from its path.

Although the plan sounds a bit simple, Lu noted that it symbolizes a huge evolutionary step for humans. Through technological innovations, humans now have the means to prevent a catastrophic event that has been happening on Earth since it was formed.

“We, human beings, now, for the first time, have it within our grasp to protect ourselves from something, a process that’s been happening on this planet for billions of years,” he said.