Between 2002 and 2012 Duncan Lunan chaired a series of discussions on the theme (suggested by Bill Ramsay, now Past President of the Educational Institute of Scotland), ‘If we knew there was going to an impact in ten years’ time, what could we do about it?’, with the supplementary question ‘…and what would we do?’. The 10-year limit was set not to be so short that nothing could be done, to allow time for action, by comparison with the duration of Project Apollo, but not so far ahead that governments could defer it to their successors. The project drew valuable contributions from many experts and was published as “Incoming Asteroid!” in 2013. Little dated since, it bears comparison with more recent studies which have attempted to deflect similar imagined threats, with little success.
Duncan Lunan, M.A., Dip.Ed., FBIS, has been a full-time author specialising in astronomy, spaceflight and science fiction since 1970. To date he has published 10 books (6 nonfiction), contributed to 36 other books, and published nearly 1650 articles. He was Manager of the Glasgow Parks Dept. Astronomy and Space Education Project, 1978-79, during which he designed and built the first astronomically aligned stone circle in the British Isles for over 3000 years (recently re-erected at a new site), and supervised the creation of the largest spaceflight exhibition in the UK up to that time. He was on the management committee of Airdrie Public Observatory for 30 years, serving as a curator for 18 of those years, and as manager of the North Lanarkshire Astronomy Project, 2006-2009, he headed an outreach team which staged multiple exhibitions and over 450 school visits. He is now Past President of the Astronomers of the Future Club in his home town of Troon, to which he returned with his wife Linda in 2012.
