Emergency Preparedness for Asteroid Threats
Yes, you read that correctly – the Federal government is working on an initiative to incorporate asteroid threats into emergency plans. From solar storms to space junk, it seems space has its share of risks from an emergency preparedness perspective!
Preparing for Asteroid Threats
The mitigation of a potential asteroid strike is nothing new – NASA has been working on this for nearly 25 years. But efforts seem to be on the rise in recent years.
The most recent initiative in this regard is being led by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. It is a 10-year initiative called the National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan. The Plan is primarily focused on the following:
- Improvements in asteroid detection, cataloging, and impact forecasting techniques
- Strategies to destroy or deflect an incoming asteroid (i.e., crashing a remote spacecraft or drone into the object, hitting the object with a nuclear warhead, etc.)
- Strategies to improve inter-agency communications to better address asteroid threats
- Education of emergency responders and other stakeholders
- Post-impact mitigation strategies
- Improvements in international cooperation to mitigate global risks
You might be thinking that this is a colossal waste of government resources, but although extremely rare, a large asteroid strike is not out of the question and in fact has happened in recent history. In 1908 a 200-foot wide object hit Russia, devastating a near 800-square mile stretch of land, and in 2013, again in Russia, an object exploded while airborne over the country and injured 1,000 people.
Generally, an event like the 2013 impact is likely to happen every few decades, which is infrequently enough that most emergency planners and first responders are not well-versed on what to do in such a situation. I support the efforts to increase emergency planning initiatives to incorporate asteroid threats, because when it comes to emergency planning, you never know what the future might hold.
