https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-spacex-launch-dart-first-test-mission-to-defend-planet-earth The spacecraft will intercept the Didymos system between Sept. 26 and Oct. 1, 2022, intentionally slamming into Dimorphos at roughly 4 miles per second (6 kilometers per second). Scientists estimate the kinetic impact will shorten Dimorphos’ orbit around Didymos by several minutes. Researchers will precisely measure that change using telescopes on Earth. Their results will validate and improve scientific computer models critical to predicting the effectiveness of the kinetic impact as a reliable method for asteroid deflection.
What a step forward, it's just, some ages from now, someone will find out/read (reading might be gone be then, you will simply upload info into your brain) about this event, when by then, such a problem will not exist anymore, nor do anyone will care about it. (or will not know in the first place, that there is such a ,,danger'' at all) It's like those vaccines that we take as children, from diseases that once were so scary. We get those shots, without knowing why, and without caring why. So will be with defenses of outer perimeters of this solar system. Multiple stations, stationed at the borders of our system, scanning space for any incoming bodies & reacting with small personnel at mars/earth, over-watching the the repair drones of those stations.
To colonize mars would be equal to 1% of earths GDP, that's as much as the makeup industry. Now when the crap hits the fence, nobody will care about the make up, but many will regret that nothing was done. Like those people, standing with card boards : ,,Why to go to mars, when we haven't solved problems down here ?'' And answer is simple : - if not now, then when ? When we will ,,solve'' those problems down here ? Probably never. That's right. Never. Each generation will generate new problems, and some problems will always remain.
I don’t think it will be nobody. I think even in the event of fences being pelted with crap the shallowest humans amongst us will want to bear witness from behind painted faces.