[meteorite-list] Getting Ready For Asteroids

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Operations/Space_Situational_Awareness/Getting_ready_for_asteroids

Getting Ready For Asteroids
European Space Agency
31 January 2014

With a mandate from the UN, ESA and other space agencies from around the 
world are about to establish a high-level group to help coordinate global 
response should a threatening asteroid ever be found heading towards Earth.

For the first time, national space agencies from North and South America, 
Europe, Asia and Africa will establish an expert group aimed at getting 
the world's space-faring nations on the "same page" when it comes to reacting 
to asteroid threats.

Its task is to coordinate expertise and capabilities for missions aimed 
at countering asteroids that might one day strike Earth.

Of the more than 600 000 known asteroids in our Solar System, more than 
10 000 are classified as near-Earth objects, or NEOs, because their orbits 
bring them relatively close to our path.

Dramatic proof that any of these can strike Earth came on 15 February 
2013, when an unknown object thought to be 17-20 m in diameter arrived 
at 66 000 km/h and exploded high above Chelyabinsk, Russia, with 20-30 
times the energy of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

The resulting shock wave caused widespread damage and injuries, making 
it the largest known natural object to have entered the atmosphere since 
the 1908 Tunguska event, which destroyed a remote forest area of Siberia.

The Space Mission Planning and Advisory Group (SMPAG - pronounced "same 
page") was established by Action Team 14, a technical forum with a mandate 
from the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS) to 
develop a strategy on how to react on a possible asteroid impact threat.

It will coordinate the technological knowhow of agencies to recommend 
specific efforts related to asteroid threats, including basic research 
and development, impact mitigation measures and deflection missions.

"SMPAG will also develop and refine a set of reference missions that could 
be individually or cooperatively flown to intercept an asteroid," says 
Detlef Koschny, Head of the NEO Segment in ESA's Space Situational Awareness 
(SSA) programme office.

"These include precursor missions or test and evaluation missions, which 
we need to fly to prove technology before a real threat arises."

The first-ever meeting will be hosted by ESA on 6-7 February at its operations 
centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

Thirty-plus representatives from 13 agencies, seven government ministries 
and the UN will share knowledge and the latest research related to impact 
case studies, and will develop a work plan for the next two years.

"As a first step, the group will study each agency's organisational and 
operational capabilities, specific technologies and scientific abilities, 
and propose options that make best use of who can do what, the best," 
says Detlef.

The group will work in close cooperation with another Action Team 14-mandated 
committee: the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN).

Each will study and recommend specific actions to deal with different 
aspects of the asteroid threat - IAWN to coordinate the global search 
for threatening NEOs, understand their effects in case of a collision, 
and interface with disaster preparation and civil response agencies; and 
SMPAG for the technology and space mission aspects.

The critical first step is to spot potential threats in the sky with as 
much advance warning as possible.

"ESA is already doing a great deal to support the global effort to address 
the asteroid threat," says Nicolas Bobrinsky, ESA's SSA Programme Manager.

The Agency is now developing the capability to integrate Europe's current 
NEO tracking assets - as well as new technology such as automated, wide-field-of-view 
telescopes - into a coordinated and more efficient NEO system that can 
provide nightly sky surveys and advanced warnings.

Among other recent developments, starting in late 2013, ESA will make 
use of observing time at the European Southern Observatory in Chile to 
conduct quick and accurate confirmations of the most hazardous NEOs.