12–14 Dec 2022
ESOC
Europe/Berlin timezone

NASA's Activities in Planetary Defense

13 Dec 2022, 14:45
20m
Room H.I (ESOC)

Room H.I

ESOC

Robert-Bosch-Str. 5 64293 Darmstadt Germany

Speakers

L.A. Lewis (FEMA) L. Johnson (NASA) R. Landis (NASA)

Description

NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) was established to manage NASA’s planetary defense-related projects and coordinate activities across multiple U.S. agencies (along with international efforts) to plan appropriate responses to the potential asteroid impact hazard. PDCO currently funds four ground-based survey capabilities (and re-purposed astrophysics survey instrument in low-Earth orbit). These survey efforts are increasingly detecting close encounter events (i.e., < 0.001 AU) and have enabled prediction of some small object impact events.

PDCO also partners with several other U.S. government agencies, most notably the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to better assess the various challenges associated with a planetary defense response, to include exercising protocols as defined in the National Near-Earth Object (NEO) Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan and the Near-Earth Object Impact Threat Emergency Protocols (NITEP) documents. The 4th Planetary Defense Tabletop Exercise (TTX4) was the first time State and local emergency managers participated on a large scale.
NASA will provide an overview of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) whose mission is:

• Finding and tracking near-Earth objects (NEOs) that pose a hazard of impacting Earth.
• Characterizing NEOs to determine trajectory, size, shape, mass, composition, rotational dynamics, and other parameters to assess the likelihood and severity of a potential Earth impact.
• Providing alerts and warning of timing and potential effects and determine possible means to mitigate the impact.
• Lead planning and implementation of measures to deflect or disrupt (break up) an object on an impact course with Earth, or to mitigate the effects of an impact if it cannot be prevented.
• Supporting terrestrial mitigation measures that can be taken to protect lives and property such as evacuation and movement of critical infrastructure.

Presentation materials