Planetary Defense / Space and Society (PDF)

Dr. Nikola Schmidt (born 1982 in Prague, Czech Republic) is currently a leader of Planetary Defense project with an objective to deliver a policy strategy on planetary defense and asteroid mining for the Czech Ministry of Transport. The project consists of astronomers, space engineers, international lawyers and political scientists. He finished his PhD in 2016 at Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences and Institute of Political Studies with a dissertation on The Birth of Cyber as a National Security Agenda. Nikola has been extensively teaching courses on space and cyber security at various Czech universities. His passion in space issues can be dated long before his master studies of international relations at Metropolitan University. A pivotal moment for Nikola was his participation in the ESA and NASA-funded planetary defense team project at the Space Studies Program, organized by the International Space University in Athens, Ohio, US in 2015. Nikola received a bachelor's degree in sociology and studied international security at Sciences Po in Paris. His recent articles were published in Acta Astronautica and New Space. Nikola founded and led two software development companies before coming back to academia and worked on a NGO-driven food facility project in Afghanistan.