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NASA reported that it carried out a simulation to evaluate the most effective form of response to the possible impact of an asteroid on Earth . The exercise included the participation of other federal agencies such as FEMA and the United States Space Command
“Although Asteroid impact threats to our planet are not anticipated in the foreseeable future, this exercise, sponsored by NASA and FEMA and organized by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, focused on the type of coordination required between the federal and state governments to respond to such a threat in case it is ever discovered”, NASA published through a statement.
This class of exercises are carried out on a regular basis and due to this is the fact that this simulation is the fourth carried out by federal agencies.
However, from the space agency they explained that this new simulation has been the first time they have been or capable of studying in detail the scenarios that could develop in the face of an event of these characteristics. This includes the phases from the discovery of the asteroid, to its impact and possible consequences.
“The impact of an asteroid on our planet is potentially the only natural disaster that humanity is capable of accurately predicting and preventing. Carrying out exercises of this nature allows government stakeholders to identify and resolve potential setbacks before action is needed at the time to respond to a real threat of an asteroid impact,” said the planetary defense officer at the NASA Headquarters, Lindley Johnson
As part of the exercise, the experts studied a simulated asteroid which they named 2022 TTX with a collision trajectory with Earth within 6 months of its discovery.
To evaluate response models, data such as their impact energy and the damage they could to cause were only reported to researchers until just a few days before the asteroid impact, something highly likely in a real case.
“This fourth inter-agency asteroid impact simulation exercise provided u A forum for federal and local government officials to work on what an imminent asteroid impact threat to the United States would look like, with the real people that would be needed for such discussions given this type of impact scenario,” said Leviticus “LA” Lewis, FEMA delegate to the Planetary Defense Coordination Office at NASA Headquarters.
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission is scheduled to conduct a Demonstration of the technology currently available to defend the Earth against possible large asteroids that are on a collision course with our planet.
This will be possible thanks to the fact that DART is currently heading towards a known asteroid which it intends to remove from its orbit so that scientists can measure the variations tions in their displacement and to be able to improve the system.
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