Apollo 9 Astronaut Rusty Schweickart on Stopping the "Armageddon" Meteor

Forget the wildly inaccurate "Armageddon" with a meteor the size of Texas heading for Earth, incredibly invisible until a few weeks before impact, despite being bigger than any known asteroid in the Solar System. The fact is, there are plenty of real asteroids out there in near earth orbit that are merely capable of ending the itch of psoriasis, continuing reruns of Law and Order, and civilization. With or without Bruce Willis's help, they're ready to smash into the Earth unless stopped or induced to step aside. That's what former Apollo astronaut Russell "Rusty" Schweickart is into these days with his B612 Foundation. This is from a transcript of my interview with Schweickart about the subject of dealing with the threat of Near Earth Objects. I've edited a bit for length and readability.

DEFINITIONS

Q: Just so we know where we are, can you provide a definition of near earth objects?

A: By and large, near earth objects really mean "near earth asteroids." That is, asteroids which happen to have gotten bumped out of the main belt, maybe millions, maybe hundreds of millions of years ago, and today circulate with orbits that cross the orbit of the earth. Because the orbits of these near earth objects cross the orbit of the earth they can occasionally hit the Earth. There are also, a very small number, perhaps 1%, 2% of near earth objects, we refer to as as near earth comets, that is old comets that have basically lost most of their moisture and therefore they don't have tails anymore and they circulate in about the same kinds of orbits that the near earth asteroids do, so we throw them together and call them all near earth objects.

Q: If an asteroid comes within a few diameters of the moon, is that still considered a near earth object?