A group of international experts has outlined steps to establish a global detection and warning network to deal with possible asteroid threats to Earth.

An interdisciplinary group, including asteroid tracking specialists, space scientists, former astronauts, United Nations authorities, as well as disaster management, risk psychology and warning communication experts gathered to take part in a workshop held January 18-20 in Mexico City.

The workshop was organized by Secure World Foundation in coordination with the Association of Space Explorers and the Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (CRECTEALC). The meeting was hosted by the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"This workshop provided a major step forward in our thinking about the needed components of an information, analysis, and warning network for asteroids. The workshop findings should go a long way toward providing the basis for such a network," said Dr. Ray A. Williamson, Executive Director of Secure World Foundation.

Substantial progress
"The report of this workshop will be a very useful input for the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) as it continues with its three-year work plan on drafting international procedures for handling the threat posed by the possible impact to Earth by an asteroid," said Dr. Sergio Camacho, Secretary General of CRECTEALC.

He is a former Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, a post that he held from 2002 to 2007.

"The Association of Space Explorers (ASE), representing the international corps of astronauts and cosmonauts, recognized the substantial progress made at the Mexico City workshop," said Tom Jones, former NASA shuttle astronaut and current Chair of the ASE Committee on Near-Earth Objects.

"The discussions in Mexico City advanced our understanding of how the global community can better communicate detection and warning information about near-Earth objects (NEOs)," Jones said.

"The information-sharing effort is an essential first step in dealing with the global hazard posed by asteroids and comets. The ASE looks forward to spreading the results of the recent workshop and urges future work within the U.N. and by the world's space agencies to develop the capacity to deflect a NEO headed for Earth, a fundamental mission for our space technology."

Series of scenarios
Meeting participants worked through a series of scenarios - hypothetical situations designed to highlight the challenges and problems that a future Information Analysis and Warning Network (IAWN) providing global warning and technical analysis would encounter in dealing with an Earth-threatening asteroid.

"For the first time an international group of experts, many who would be the ones doing the actual analysis of an asteroid impact threat, came together to work through the challenges which will be faced by the international community in deciding how to respond to such an event," said Apollo astronaut, Russell Schweickart, former chair of the ASE-NEO Committee.

"The participants grappled with scenarios ranging from a small impact, where evacuation of the impact zone is the most likely response, up to a large asteroid, where only an immediate decision to initiate a deflection campaign would prevent the disaster," Schweickart said.

"The recommendations from this exercise will be integrated into the work of UN COPUOS where the nations of the world are discussing how to prevent these devastating, though infrequent, events."

United Nations Action Team-14
IAWN is one of three entities being considered to deal with the NEO impact problem, which were outlined by an Association of Space Explorers report - Asteroid Threats: A Call for Global Response - issued in 2008.

That ASE report was sent to the United Nations Action Team-14, a group within the UN COPUOS Scientific and Technical Subcommittee established in 2001 for the purposes of addressing the asteroid impact threat.

Along with IAWN, the Association of Space Explorers report also recommended setting up:

+ A Mission Planning and Operations Group (MPOG) to plan, organize, and conduct any necessary missions to threatening asteroids.

+ A Mission Authorization and Oversight Group (MAOG) to provide decision making.

Attendees of the just-held Mexico City gathering specifically focused on IAWN, although future meetings are intended to discuss the other two entities.

Need for a coordinated, global response
The IAWN workshop was held as a next step to build on the conclusions of the ASE report after a recommendation by Action Team-14 at their meeting in June 2009.

The recommendations from the just-held Mexico City workshop will be briefed at the meeting of UN COPOUS Scientific and Technical Subcommittee next month and submitted to Action Team-14 for consideration.

"We are fully aware that there is a lot of resistance to creating new bureaucracies and massive new institutions," said SWF Technical Advisor Brian Weeden.

"So the objective of the workshop and future discussion is not to create a new United Nations function or entity, but to try and use existing capabilities already being provided by States or institutions and adding other necessary capability. There needs to be a coordinated, global response to asteroid threats, and we are working to find the most efficient and effective way of doing just that," he said.