INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The action plan includes enhancing NEO detection, tracking, and characterisation capabilitiesWashington: In a
key step to defend Earth from potentially devastating risks of near-Earth objects or NEOs -- asteroids and comets -- whose orbits come
within 30 million miles of Earth, NASA has released a federal planning document.The US space agency along with the Office of Science and
Technology Policy, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and several other governmental agencies have collaborated on this federal
planning document for NEOs, and have charted five overarching strategic goals to reduce the risk of NEO impacts through improved
understanding, forecasting, prevention and emergency preparedness. The 20-page document, titled "National Near-Earth Object Preparedness
Strategy and Action Plan" aims to organise and coordinate efforts related to the NEO efforts within the federal government during the next
10 years to ensure that the nation can more effectively respond in case of such an event, which has a low-probability but can bring very
high-consequence natural disasters. "The nation already has significant scientific, technical and operation capabilities that are relevant
to asteroid impact prevention," Lindley Johnson, NASA's planetary defence officer said in a statement. "Implementing the National
Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan will greatly increase our nation's readiness and work with international partners to
respond effectively, should a new potential asteroid impact be detected," Mr Johnson added.The action plan includes enhancing NEO detection,
tracking, and characterisation capabilities; improving NEO modelling prediction, and information integration. It will also develop
technologies for NEO deflection and disruption missions, increase international cooperation on NEO preparation, as well as establish NEO
impact emergency procedures and action protocol, the statement said.Achieving these five goals will, for a very modest government endeavour,
dramatically increase the nation's preparedness for addressing the NEO hazard and mitigating any threat, the statement said.NASA has been
studying NEOs since the 1970s
The agency initiated its impact hazard mitigation efforts with a project commonly called "Spaceguard" in the late 1990s to begin to search
for them. NASA now participates as a key member in both the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) and the asteroid Space Mission
Planning and Advisory Group, endorsed by the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN-COPUOS) as the combined
response for all space-capable nations to address the NEO impact hazard. To better organise US efforts, NASA also established the Planetary
Defence Coordination Office in 2016
To date, NASA-sponsored NEO surveys have provided over 95 per cent of all NEO discoveries.
