INTERVIEW DANICA REMY
“IN 2019, WOMEN HAVE EXCEPTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR LEADERSHIP IN THE AEROSPACE ARENA” Asteroid Day, the official United Nations’ day for global awareness about asteroids that is supported by the government of Luxembourg, celebrated its 5th anniversary on 30 June 2019. What began as a petition circulated by experts in the field of asteroids to raise awareness and government funding for asteroids and asteroid discovery programmes now includes thousands of events worldwide. Danica Remy, president of the California-based B612 Foundation whose goal is to inform and protect the Earth from asteroids, is one of the co-founders of Asteroid Day, leading the organisation’s global efforts to educate and protect the world from asteroids. Merkur had the chance to ask Danica about her work just a few days ahead of the Asteroid Day festivities. Here’s what she had to say. Text: Hannah Ekberg
Asteroid Day has been based in Luxembourg since 2017. How did Luxembourg fit into the plans of Asteroid Day? Why did you choose Luxembourg? Or did Luxembourg choose you?
“In early 2016, after the Luxembourg government announced the SpaceResources.lu strategy, I reached out to Georges Schmit (special envoy of the government of Luxembourg for the SpaceResources.lu initiative - See Carte Blanche p.130) and it all began then. Although Asteroid Day and B612 are not focused on space resources specifically, there was clearly a lot of overlap. That led to April 2017, when His Royal Highness Crown Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg and a delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Étienne Schneider conducted an official tour of companies and organisations in the US, including meetings at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California. At this meeting, we announced an agreement to locate and grow our Asteroid Day organisation in Luxembourg. As a UN-sanctioned event with global reach, it was important for us to partner with leaders developing this important emerging field and Luxembourg was clearly that leader.
80 MERKUR Juillet | Août 2019
Could you explain how the Asteroid Day initiative originally got started? How does something like that happen between you and your fellow co-founders – by email, at a coffee break during a conference at Cape Canaveral, or at Brian May’s favourite pub in London?
“The genesis of Asteroid Day began in February 2014, when Dr Brian May, astrophysicist and famed guitarist for the rock band Queen, began working with Grigorij Richters to compose music for his film, 51 Degrees North. As the film was about a fictional asteroid impact, Brian suggested that Grig speak with me at the B612 Foundation. Previously, I had invited Brian to be a strategic advisor to B612. Then, I roped in Apollo 9 Astronaut Rusty Schweickart, B612’s Chair Emeritus and B612 co-founder. We had numerous conversations and email exchanges, in addition to conversations that Grig and Brian had in the fall of 2014 at Starmus with Stephen Hawking. Out of those conversations, we conceived how to implement Asteroid Day: one day each year dedicated to creating greater awareness and education about asteroids. We
modelled it after Earth Day, e.g. no one is really in charge. Rusty brought together our Asteroid Expert Panel, which is a network of asteroid experts. I worked with Grig on programming and education, and he, of course, directed and produced the educational films and webcasts. Our first Asteroid Day took place in 2015 in London and San Francisco. This year, we celebrate our 5th anniversary with independently produced events around the globe and five days of events here in L uxembourg, including an Asteroid Day Live broadcast (thanks to SES and BCE), with astronauts, and asteroid expert visits to schools in Luxembourg, a technical briefing for industry and educational partners, and a gala at Cercle Cité.
As co-founder of Asteroid Day (and president of the B612 Foundation!), you are a leader in a visionary field. Was there a key moment in your life when you remember thinking “asteroids, that’s it, that’s what I’m going to do”?
“I would say I fell into the field of asteroids. I have been friends with Rusty Schweickart since the ‘80s. When I left my last job of more than a decade, he suggested I talk to Dr Ed Lu, another astronaut and the other co-founder of B612. I had listened to Rusty talk for years about asteroid risks and geopolitical issues with asteroid deflections. I fell in love with both the global challenge to find and deflect asteroids and was inspired by how new technology was revolutionising the space industry. I am techno-optimist and after learning what could be done to deflect an asteroid, I was certain this was a rather simple global problem to solve, in comparison to other global problems. I was sure that, collectively, humanity could solve the asteroid impact risk and I wanted to be part of it.
Asteroid Day: ●
Held each year on 30 June
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125 regional coordinators
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2019 marks the the 5th anniversary
in more than 190 countries. across the globe. of Atseroid Day
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5 days broadcast from Luxembourg 2,000 self-organised educational events held on all seven continents.