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By Emily Lakdawalla

Inside the U.N.'s Near Earth Object Working Group

Feb. 15, 2010 | 17:10 PST | Feb. 16 01:10 UTC

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by Bruce Betts, Planetary Society Director of Projects

This week I'm attending a U.N. meeting in Austria, in particular the parts focused on international considerations of the near-Earth object threat. The Planetary Society is very pleased to have recently been added to "UN Action Team 14." Sounds like a group of superheroes. Well, maybe not, but it is a group of people trying to save the world -- in this case from dangerous asteroids.

Click to enlarge >

The United Nations Building in Vienna

Credit: Bruce Betts

The UN bureaucratic structure makes any one country's bureaucracy seem amateurish. For example, I am representing The Planetary Society on Action Team 14 of the Near Earth Object Working Group of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee (STSC) of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). The current set of meetings I am attending includes the first 3 of those groups. So, I attend Action Team meetings, where we do small group, super hero editing of recommendations, sitting around a table and hashing things out. Those recommendations then go up the bureaucratic chain. I also attend the much larger STSC meetings. These are classic UN meetings complete with country delegations, real time translation through wireless headphones, and the all important country or organizational name placards. And, yes, The Planetary Society has our own name placard.

Click to enlarge >

Inside the U.N.

A view from inside the meeting room at the United Nations. Notice our own "TPS" placard.
Credit: Bruce Betts

But besides important things like name placards and subcommittees of subcommittees, what is the point? Protecting the Earth from asteroids and comets is inherently an international issue. NEOs could hit anywhere and could affect multiple countries. They can create large disaster situations that will require international aid. And, if one country deflects a NEO so it won't hit a particular country, in the process, the NEO's target point will pass over other countries before reaching safety. How does one deal with that? Well, Action Team 14 is recommending several general steps that should be implemented internationally. These have flowed out of work by a variety of groups including the Association for Space Explorers, Secure World Foundation workshops, IAA Planetary Defense workshops (like the one I attended in Granada last year), and the AT 14 members. The bottom line is that rather than wait for when an asteroid is bearing down on us, we should decide now how the process will work, including the international coordination aspects. Then, when we find a NEO with our name on it, or that even has a high chance of hitting Earth, these protocols can be followed quickly to, yes, save the world.

See our latest issue of The Planetary Report -- done in partnership with the Secure World Foundation who is also here -- for more background on the international challenges as well as great technical articles on where we are now with our understanding of NEOs and how to potentially deflect them.

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Comments

Keep the faith, Bruce

Hi Bruce,
Keep the momentum going for meaningful cooperation on NEOs, Bruce. Great to have TPS adding their voice to the discussion.
Do you sense forward progress? The extra NASA money should make a big impression.
Tom

#1 - Tom Jones - 02/16/2010 - 13:08

Retired scientist

Earth's history is riddled with actual collision craters. Some are obvious such as the big crater in Winslow, Arizona (where "Starman" met his mother ship). Others are weathered and hidden but still visible. Southern Ohio has a huge remnant crater nearly leveled by weather but still visible near the Great Serpent Mound effigy built by ancient Amerindians (before the European migration). Some therorize that the Great Serpent Mound is an attempt to warn future residents of Earth about the fire serpents from the Heavens.

#2 - Ron Snare - 02/16/2010 - 14:11

This is very important work. Congrats on representing TPS and figuring out the process we as a world will need to follow WHEN the big one heads our way.
Chuck

#3 - Chuck Franke - 02/26/2010 - 10:31

retired federal employee

Does the Near Earth Object Working Group of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee (STSC) of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) have its own email newsletter? If yes, where do I sign up?

#4 - Edward Greisch - 02/26/2010 - 22:40

Other smaller craters worth visiting include one near Odessa, Texas and the Henbury Craters S. of Alice Springs in C. Australia. You can drive to these and walk across them, a few hundred m. There's also Wolf Creek in the Outback in NW Australia, and no doubt many others. There is supposed to be littls sign of the large Vredefort Ring in the Transvaal (S. Africa) from the ground.
Compared to these the Winslow or Barringer Crater near Winslow AZ was disappointing. Admission (it's owned by the Barringers) is expensive and you get to view it from a visitor's center. No hiking to the bottom (phooey :-(!) or even around it except by arrangement--I was able to do this.

#5 - Roger Williams - 02/28/2010 - 10:19

do we, as a species deserve to survive?

I have been maintaining for years that unless the earth's nations can overcome their differences and cooperate on establishing an early warning system for detecting NEOs and developing a means of deflecting such objects early enough that they don't hit us, then we will not and do not deserve to survive as a species. The Planatary Society's leadership and advocation on these goals behalf have gone a long way toward getting the nations of earth to focus on this (as well as the population of earth) and given me hope than humankind can rise to this challenge.

P.S. I agree wholehardedly with Chuck Franke's use of the word "when" in the sentence "when the big one heads our way". Keep up the great work!

#6 - David Myers - 03/03/2010 - 23:54


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