  It has been 20 years since planning began for the 1995 United Nations
International Conference on Near-Earth Objects. The conference proceedings
established the scientific basis for an international organizational framework
to support research and collective actions to mitigate a potential near-Earth
object (NEO) threat to the planet. Since that time, researchers have conducted
telescope surveys that should, within the coming decade, answer many questions
about the size, number, and Earth impact probability of these objects. Space
explorations to asteroids and comets have been successfully carried out,
including sample recovery. Laboratory experiments and computer simulations at
Sandia National Laboratories have analyzed the effects of soft X-ray radiation
on meteorites - which might help researchers develop a way to redirect an
incoming asteroid by vaporizing a thin layer of its surface. An Action Team on
NEOs, established in 2001 in response to recommendations of the Third United
Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space,
identified the primary components of NEO mitigation and emphasized the value of
finding potentially hazardous NEOs as soon as possible. Recommendations from
the Action Team are meant to ensure that all nations are aware of the NEO
danger; and to coordinate mitigation activities among nations that could be
affected by an impact, as well as those that might play an active role in any
eventual deflection or disruption campaign.
