NASA and various partners have spent more than twenty years scanning the skies for threats to the Earth in the form of comets or asteroids, looking to identify objects which might potentially collide with the planet. While none have been identified that present an immediate threat, NASA, FEMA and assorted other national and international agencies are still looking to conduct a tabletop exercise, with the intent of evaluating the best approaches for disaster management planning for such a situation. Part of the 2019 Planetary Defense Conference, this scenario has been designed by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Center for NEO Studies.
“These exercises have really helped us in the planetary defense community to understand what our colleagues on the disaster management side need to know. This exercise will help us develop more effective communications with each other and with our governments,” says Lindley Johnson, Planetary Defense Officer for NASA.
This specific exercise, which is the seventh that NASA will have participated in overall and the third jointly with FEMA, uses a fictional scenario in which astronomers discover a Near Earth Object that is predicted to have a 1 in 100 chance of impacting Earth in 2027. Participants will discuss topics from how to divert the asteroid, to how to best research it, to how to mitigate the effects of a collision on Earth.
“NASA and FEMA will continue to conduct periodic exercises with a continually widening community of US government agencies and international partners,” says Johnson. “They are a great way for us to learn how to work together and meet each other’s needs and the objectives laid out in the White House National NEO Preparedness Action Plan.”
Sources:
https://gizmodo.com/nasa-and-fema-will-simulate-an-impending-asteroid-strik-1834308695
