Ed Lu & the B612 Foundation

On February 15, 2013, a small asteroid named 2012 DC14 passed extremely close to Earth, garnering global attention. Despite many "boy who cried wolf" accusations in the past, it seemed like this particular fly-by was getting too close for comfort, and people took particular notice of ongoing expert warnings of imminent natural catastrophes from a potential direct impacts.

Enter Ed Lu. He is a former NASA astronaut, who I had the pleasure of meeting during our 2012 Sea-Space Summit at Google's headquarters in Silicon Valley. He is dedicating his life to saving our planet from rogue asteroids.

Ed knows that we currently have the technology to divert any asteroid heading directly toward Earth. The challenge is giving ourselves enough of a warning. Therefore, in true entrepreneurial fashion, he helped launched the B612 Foundation. Named after the title character's asteroid home in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince, the Foundation has plans for a modern asteroid early-warning system based on a single infrared space telescope placed in orbit around the sun. Their "Sentinel Mission" would identify and map any potentially threatening asteroids.

To customize an oft-quoted phrase, "If the dinosaurs had had Ed Lu, the B612 Foundation, and the Sentinel Mission, they would probably still be around." Let's hope modern homo sapiens take advantage of our good luck.