Asteroid Emergency Drill Conducted by NASA, FEMA
Talk about shooting for the stars! In May 2019, NASA, FEMA and the ESA (European Space Agency) sponsored an asteroid emergency tabletop exercise. This was the latest in a series of emergency drills designed to simulate the effect of an asteroid slamming into Earth (I know, pleasant thought!).
Details of the Most Recent Asteroid Emergency Drill
Apparently, our planet is currently surrounded by more asteroid activity than it has been in hundreds of millions of years. Although the threat of a large-scale asteroid emergency is still extremely remote, as I like to say, you can never be too prepared, and that is the rationale for executing these types of drills.
The May 2019 drill was facilitated by the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), which was created in 2016 to coordinate the detection and tracking of “near-Earth objects.” For reference, nearly 1,500 near-Earth objects are detected each and every year. This ability to identify potentially-threatening objects is a critical first step to being prepared, because it’s tough to react to something you don’t see coming.
Unlike utility exercises & drills, the hypothetical timeline of the PDCA drill was much longer – about 8 years to be exact. The drill scenario involved the detection of a 300-meter object in March 2019 that was projected to have a 1% chance of striking the Earth in April 2027.
In terms of the drill timeline, the simulation spanned 5 days, during which participants received daily updates on the asteroid’s trajectory. These updates were meant to stimulate discussion around mitigation tactics like deflection, ways to manage public communication to avoid panic, and disaster recovery.
All told, the notion of holding drills around asteroid threats is unique but intriguing. For those of us in the emergency preparedness field, learning about how other sectors prepare for the worst is always a good idea, as the learning could help spur new ideas and innovations that we may not have previously considered.
