Mission Planning and Operations Group (MPOG) Workshop in Europe During October 2010

Article on the Mission Planning and Operations Group (MPOG) workshop recently organized by Secure World Foundation, the Association of Space Explorers, and the European Space Agency, held on October 27-29 at the European Space Agency’s European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany. Selections from the article...

The workshop brought together for the first time space agencies to discuss the future deflection of a hazardous asteroid, said former shuttle astronaut, Tom Jones, Chair of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) Committee on Near-Earth Objects.

“Representatives from NASA and the European Space Agency, facilitated by Secure World Foundation and the Association of Space Explorers, talked substantively about how their programs could be coordinated to gather important planetary defense knowledge about asteroids, what asteroid research is needed to facilitate deflection planning, how space agencies should demonstrate asteroid deflection technologies, and when future planning meetings should take place,” Jones said.

Leading international authorities on planetary defense, space situational awareness, as well as orbital debris, along with astronauts and space scientists, took part in the workshop. It was the latest in a series of meetings organized to report to the United Nations Action Team-14, a group within the UN’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space Scientific and Technical Subcommittee established in 2001 for the purposes of addressing the asteroid impact threat.

“The workshop series is focusing on plans and recommendations for global coordination and response in the event that an asteroid or other object is found to pose an impact threat to Earth,” explained workshop coordinator, Detlef Koschny from the European Space Agency.

Link: Secure World Foundation (SWF) Press Release