Asteroid Collision Drill Set for This Week

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Though the drill is run every two years by asteroid scientists around the world, the European Space Agency has decided to share the event publicly so everyone can see what would happen and what actions might be taken to mitigate the damage.

“The first step in protecting our planet is knowing what’s out there,” says Rüdiger Jehn, ESA’s Head of Planetary Defense, in a statement. “Only then, with enough warning, can we take the steps needed to prevent an asteroid strike altogether, or to minimize the damage it does on the ground.”

Updates from the drill will be shared on the ESA Operations Twitter account, starting Monday, April 29 and running until May 3.

The first tweet has already been written, with the ESA writing: "A hypothetical asteroid has been 'discovered', and worryingly looks set to impact Earth. Follow the progress of fictional asteroid #2019PDC and the response on the ground, over the next few days of the #PlanetaryDefense Conference.

Source: Asteroid collision impact drill set for this week

I'll alert the virtual dinosaurs.

There is no plausible excuse for using the word "worryingly." Don't believe me? Try saying it out loud.

Strange choice of words. I would probably have phrased it.

A hypothetical asteroid has been 'discovered', and threatens an Earth impact.

As it's the ESA it could have been translated from another language.

Anyway, it makes a refreshing change from the tautologous "existential threat" that BBC News are keen on using lately.

It is interesting that the headlines today talked about a real asteroid threat. A 1,110-foot-wide asteroid named for the Egyptian "god of chaos" will fly past Earth in 2029 within the distance of some orbiting spacecraft, according to reports. The Asteroid is called 99942 Apophis. It will come within 19,000 miles of Earth on April 13, 2029. That is around 0.08 Lunar Distances (the distance between Earth and the Moon). That is close! Too close for comfort! If it should strike Earth sometimes in the future, it would release the energy of approximately 500 megatons of TNT.

Source: Huge 'God of Chaos' asteroid to pass near Earth in 2029

It would be funny if during an asteroid collision drill, if the world had to be interrupted to deal with a real collision threat. Anyways for this real threat, we should be launching an intercept satellite to greet the asteroid and implant a transponder. That way we would know with great precision and accuracy if and when such a collision outcome would occur.

Bang on target for anything in geo-stationary orbit, then (approx: 22,000 miles.) With all the focus on a huge direct hit, people so easily neglect how much chaos wiping out a huge chunk of our satellite fleet might cause - and possibly not being able to replace it easily because of the resulting debris.