published over 225 papers and articles in scientific journals and symposiums, including his first in 1976 on "The Two-Body problem with a Decreasing Gravitational Constant". In 2014 he became a strategic adviser to the B612 Foundation. His education includes an M.Sc. from the University of Utrecht and a double Ph.D. in particle physics and astrophysics from the University of Amsterdam in 1977 and 1981 respectively. He is the namesource for Asteroid 17031 Piethut honoring his work in planetary dynamics and for his co-founding of B612. Dumitru Prunariu, strategic adviser Dr. Dumitru-Dorin Prunariu (, b. 27 September 1952) is a retired Romanian cosmonaut and a strategic advisor to the B612 Foundation. In 1981 he flew an eight-day mission to the Soviet Salyut 6 space station where he and his crewmates completed experiments in astrophysics, space radiation, space technology, and space medicine. He received the Hero of the Socialist Republic of Romania, the Hero of the Soviet Union, the "Hermann Oberth Gold Medal", the "Golden Star Medal" and the Order of Lenin. Prunariu is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, the Romanian National COSPAR Committee, and the Association of Space Explorers (ASE). In 1993, until 2004, he was the permanent representative of the ASE at the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS) and has represented Romania at COPUOS sessions since 1992. He also became the vice-president of the International Institute for Risk, Security and Communication Management (EURISC), and from 1998 to 2004 the president of the Romanian Space Agency. In 2000 he was appointed Associate Professor on Geopolitics within the Faculty of International Business and Economics, Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest and in 2004 he was elected COPUOS's Chairman of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee. He was then elected as COPUOS's top level chairman, serving from 2010 to 2012, and also elected as the president of the ASE with a three-year mandate. Prunariu has co-authored several books on space flight and both presented and published numerous scientific papers. His education includes a degree in aerospace engineering in 1976 from the Politehnica University of Bucharest. His Ph.D. thesis led to improvements in the field of space flight dynamics. Deflection methods A number of methods have been devised to 'deflect' an asteroid or other NEO away from an Earth-impacting trajectory, so that it can entirely avoid entering the Earth's atmosphere. Given sufficient advance lead time,