"[The asteroids] go around the Sun the same way that the Earth does, but their paths occasionally cross the orbit of the Earth," Schweickart told RT's Sophie Shevardnadze.
"And, sooner or later, the Earth and the asteroid will be in the intersection at the same time. It's just like two cars."
The famed astronaut co-founded the non-profit B612 Foundation, which advocates for building a global asteroid defense shield. He believes humanity should run a comprehensive asteroid database and focus on creating technology able to spot the incoming cosmic bodies.
The database will also help to calculate their trajectory years before they would be detected as being on collision course with our planet, Schweickart said.
He explained that the next step to deal with the asteroid would be to "to slow it down or speed it up a little bit, using space technology, so that it arrives slightly ahead of the Earth or behind the Earth."
That's a deflection. We don't have to blow it up. We don't have to change its orbit. We just change its arrival time at that intercept.The astronaut is confident that the nations of the world can access such technology sometime in the future, if they choose to invest enough money and effort. Impact events are relatively rare but the stakes are still high, he stressed, recalling the Chelyabinsk meteor, which fell from the sky in broad daylight Russia in 2013 and, by sheer luck, didn't kill anyone.
"There have been mass extinctions in the past. And the impact that wiped out the dinosaurs 64 million years ago wiped out 75 percent of all life that existed," Schweickart warned.
"So, yes, a city can be destroyed, a continent can be destroyed, and life on the planet can be destroyed. Civilization is very fragile, frankly. So, it doesn't take much to destroy civilization."
For as we all know - throwing money at a problem is the way to solve it - like search for god particles, darkmatter, cures for cancer, vaccinations against everything, ending poverty, ending world hunger and population control.
There is satellite surveillance for enforcing the new shipping emissions regulations coming in force in Jan 2020.
What are the broader implications of becoming the 'aliens' we once feared would enslave or destroy us?
Is the concern for actual people in regard to real or computer modelled threats of destruction? If so - where is the will to educate people in the truth that can be vigilant against deceit - rather than using deceit to manipulate the people into sacrificing to false gods? Is not the concern for funding, marketising and weaponising anything and everything? In this case control of space - relative to leaving or orbiting Earth.
There may be many dedicated and willing to work for good intentions - but are they being used?
We must learn how to slow down and connect with the real world - rather than desperately seek sustainability of a false one.