The asteroid tugboat idea was developed by Schweickart and his team at Foundation B612.

CNN: Space's threat to civilization

Leading the campaign for a global response to NEOs and a closer exploration of their physical make up is former astronaut Russell Schweickart, who piloted the lunar module of Apollo 9 in 1969.

CNN: Space's threat to civilization

Rusty Schweickart, a member of the Association of Space Explorers, a club of ex-astronauts and cosmonauts, has been working with his colleagues to lobby the United Nations to put asteroid-impact planning on the agenda.

ECONOMIST: The American Association for the Advancement of Science

In 2005 Schweickart successfully campaigned for NASA to take the issue of NEOs seriously, the result has been a number of NASA centers developing prospective plans to land a spacecraft and even astronauts on an asteroid.

CNN: Space's threat to civilization

Schweickart believes that the means to deflect an asteroid are already at our disposal and is pleased that NASA has agreed with him that action would need to be taken years before a potential impact in order to neutralize the threat.

CNN: Space's threat to civilization