The week-long conference brought together scientists, engineers, policymakers and industry leaders from around the globe to discuss the protection of the planet from hazardous near-Earth objects like asteroids or comets.
Dr Sias Mostert, Director at SCS Space, acting African Regional Secretary of the IAA and co-chair of the local organising committee for the conference, used his opening remarks to contextualise the event as “a unique intersection of disciplines – where space meets Earth, and where science, technology, and society converge”; reflecting on Stellenbosch's heritage as the birthplace of South Africa's space engineering efforts as well as praising the local ecosystem's evolution over the past 35 years and its growing footprint on global missions such as the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission and NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART).
The Institute's Hannes Mayer presented a paper on the legality of nuclear explosions for planetary defense purposes.
PDC 2025: 9th IAA International Planetary Defence Conference 2025