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Former astronauts Rusty Schweickart, Franklin Chang Diaz, Ed Lu, and Gregory H. Johnson.

Can we stop asteroids from slamming into Earth? Will people live in space? Are astronauts going back to the moon?

An accomplished group of four former and current NASA astronauts discussed fascinating questions like these today at Spacefest, a three-day event organized by the Museum of Flight in Seattle.

Photo via Ed Lu.
Photo via Ed Lu, who snapped this photo from the International Space Station.

Rusty Schweickart, Franklin Chang Diaz, Ed Lu, and Gregory H. Johnson — who have a combined 14 missions to space between them — shared memories from their experiences above the clouds and offered up opinions on the future of space flight.

One topic was the public perception of space travel. NBC News Science Editor Alan Boyle, who moderated the panel, brought up the fact that many Americans think space travel is something we used to do and how interest is trending downward with the closure of NASA’s Space Shuttle Program in 2011.

However, the speakers expressed optimism with where the next generation of space travel is headed, but also noted the differences between what’s already been accomplished and what’s planned for the future.

Schweickart used the analogy of a tall skyscraper to describe the history of space travel, noting how the first two floors can be considered the “earth, moon, space” level.

15660999687_aaa359bf82_z“What we’re doing now is heading toward operating on the rooftop of that skyscraper,” he said. “There is a huge gap between operating in earth-moon-space and in deep space when you’re talking about going on the other side of the sun.”

Boyle noted that the rooftop of the skyscraper “seems pretty far away,” and explained how it’s hard for the public to get excited about something that won’t be happening for possibly decades.

“This is an extraordinarily difficult thing to do,” said Diaz, who’s traveled on a record seven Space Shuttle missions. “Sometimes people think that because we’ve gone to the moon, we can just go to Mars. It’s not so simple. We have to give astronauts a fighting chance — otherwise, we’ll have a crew on their way to Mars and they’ll be doomed. It’s important we get serious about this, take our time to do the homework, and develop the technology that needs to be done so we do it right.”

Lu, who’s trying to prevent asteroids from smashing into Earth with the Sentinel Mission, talked about getting people motivated about the future of space travel. He said it’s all about “doing big things,” and recalled watching Apollo 11 land on the moon 45 years ago.

“There were people watching in Times Square, on the streets of Paris, in Tokyo and Moscow,” Lu said. “It was a world-unifying experience. I think to myself, what could be the next event like that?”

Lu said that something similar could happen when we figure out how to deflect an asteroid.

“Everyone will be waiting for that mission to be successful,” he said. “I think that is going to be a world-unifying experience because that is a cause for celebration — human beings successfully working together to solve their political problems on the ground and then building a spacecraft. We’ll keep an asteroid from hitting Earth. At some point, this scenario has to play out — if not, we’re in trouble.”

Today, the astronauts are dabbling in varying space-related ventures. Schweickart and Lu are co-founders of the B612 Foundation; Diaz is president and CEO of Ad Astra Rocket; and Johnson is president of CASIS.

You can listen to the entire conversation below:

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