The National Planetary Defense Strategy provides a road map for a collaborative and federally coordinated approach to developing effective technologies, policies, practices, and procedures for decreasing U.S. and global vulnerability to NEO impacts. When implemented, the National Planetary Defense Strategy will improve detection, research, mission planning, emergency preparedness and response, international engagement, and internal U.S. government coordination on planetary defense.
This June 2018 report was issued by the Interagency Working Group for Detecting and Mitigating the Impact of Earth-Bound Near-Earth Objects (NEO) and has been professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction. In addition to the report, this compilation reproduction includes the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Aeronautics and Space Report of the President Fiscal Year 2016 activities. Contents: Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate * Science Mission Directorate * Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate * Space Technology Mission Directorate * Department of Defense * Federal Aviation Administration * Department of Commerce * Department of the Interior * Federal Communications Commission * U S Department of Agriculture * National Science Foundation * Department of State * Department of Energy * Smithsonian InstitutionThe National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy and Action Plan (Strategy and Action Plan) will improve our Nation's preparedness to address the hazard of near-Earth object (NEO) impacts over the next 10 years. Its primary role is to help organize and coordinate NEO-related efforts within Federal Departments and Agencies (agencies), with a particular focus on efforts that are already existing and resourced. It seeks to leverage and enhance existing assets and capabilities--National and international, public and private--to effectively manage the risks associated with NEOs. The Strategy and Action Plan builds on efforts by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Department of Energy (DOE) to detect and characterize the NEO population and to prevent and respond to NEO impacts on Earth.Five strategic goals, each supported by a set of strategic objectives and specific associated actions, underpin the effort to enhance the Nation's preparedness for potential NEO impacts:Goal 1: Enhance NEO Detection, Tracking, and Characterization Capabilities: NASA will lead the development of a roadmap for improving national capabilities for NEO detection, tracking, and characterization. Supporting actions will reduce current levels of uncertainty and aid in more accurate modeling and more effective decision-making.Goal 2: Improve NEO Modeling, Prediction, and Information Integration: Agencies will coordinate the development of validated modeling tools and simulation capabilities that aid in characterizing and mitigating NEO impact risks while streamlining data flows to support effective decision-making.Goal 3: Develop Technologies for NEO Deflection and Disruption Missions: NASA will lead development of technologies for fast-response NEO reconnaissance missions and timely missions to deflect or disrupt hazardous NEOs. Developing these technologies before an imminent threat arises will strengthen our ability to prevent NEO impact disasters.Goal 4: Increase International Cooperation on NEO Preparation: Agencies will work to inform and develop international support for addressing global NEO impact risks. International engagement and cooperation will help the Nation to prepare more effectively for a potential NEO impact.Goal 5: Strengthen and Routinely Exercise NEO Impact Emergency Procedures and Action Protocols
Planetary defense from near-Earth objects such as asteroids is a far more nuanced and challenging topic than it might seem. Each day, technology is making it easier to detect asteroid impact threats in advance, but at present, there is still no easy way to design and implement any form of global defense. This book examines how various asteroid deflection methods can change global political affairs. The authors believe that the final policy for potential Earth impacts should be based on practical engineering solutions and innovative architectural structures, while at the same time reflecting the most recent political science contributions in ethical security studies and security cosmopolitanism. Their focus is not limited to effective engineering solutions, but rather extends to how such proposals resonate in possible political structures of the future. Planetary defense cannot be achieved with technology alone; the chapters in this volume highlight the issues that arise when space science and technology intersect with political science. This complex interdisciplinary project not only demands global participation and collaboration, but also proposes the way we can achieve it. The authors explore various concepts of governance and their far-reaching implications for planetary defense and vice versa—how scientific progress in Solar System observations and asteroid collision engineering influence political science and put pressure on the international legal framework. The text is intentionally written for a diverse scholarly and diplomatic audience in a style accessible to non-specialists and practitioners and can be read by those across diverse disciplinary backgrounds.
Impacts by asteroids or comets on Earth may lead to natural disasters of catastrophic dimensions. This book addresses legal and policy aspects of ‘planetary defence’ activities by space agencies and other actors aiming at the prediction and mitigation of Near-Earth Objects (NEOs).
The United States spends approximately $4 million each year searching for near-Earth objects (NEOs). The objective is to detect those that may collide with Earth. The majority of this funding supports the operation of several observatories that scan the sky searching for NEOs. This, however, is insufficient in detecting the majority of NEOs that may present a tangible threat to humanity. A significantly smaller amount of funding supports ways to protect the Earth from such a potential collision or "mitigation." In 2005, a Congressional mandate called for NASA to detect 90 percent of NEOs with diameters of 140 meters of greater by 2020. Defending Planet Earth: Near-Earth Object Surveys and Hazard Mitigation Strategies identifies the need for detection of objects as small as 30 to 50 meters as these can be highly destructive. The book explores four main types of mitigation including civil defense, "slow push" or "pull" methods, kinetic impactors and nuclear explosions. It also asserts that responding effectively to hazards posed by NEOs requires national and international cooperation. Defending Planet Earth: Near-Earth Object Surveys and Hazard Mitigation Strategies is a useful guide for scientists, astronomers, policy makers and engineers.
As space continues to attract substantial public and private investment and has become ever more active, the third edition of this book has been updated to cover recent developments. This includes the legal bases of UN Resolution 76/3, the Space3030 Agenda, which envisages ‘space as a driver of sustainable development’ and sets out an extensive programme for the future. The work also takes account of adaptations and augmentations to basic space treaties. It examines the increasing commercialisation of space in areas such as space tourism and space mining, for which four states have already adopted relevant legislation. The impact of new technologies such as satellite constellations and micro-satellites are also scrutinised. At a time when space tourism is available to those who can afford it and when the moon will shortly be revisited with a prospect of permanent bases, this third edition provides a firm base for the next generation of space lawyers. As with previous editions, the work draws from governmental, international organisational and other authoritative sources as well as the relevant literature in the field. The book will be an essential and comprehensive resource for students, academics and researchers as well as space agencies, governments and space-active companies. It will also be of value to technical operatives and managers who need to know the legal context within which they work.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is widely admired for astonishing accomplishments since its formation in 1958. Looking ahead over a comparable period of time, what can the nation and the world expect of NASA? What will be the agency's goals and objectives, and what will be the strategy for achieving them? More fundamentally, how will the goals, objectives, and strategy be established and by whom? How will they be modified to reflect changes in science, technology, national priorities, and available resources? In late 2011, the United States Congress directed the NASA Office of Inspector General to commission a "comprehensive independent assessment of NASA's strategic direction and agency management." Subsequently, NASA requested that the National Research Council (NRC) conduct this independent assessment. In the spring of 2012, the NRC Committee on NASA's Strategic Direction was formed and began work on its task. The committee determined that, only with a national consensus on the agency's future strategic directionalong the lines described in the full NRC reportcan NASA continue to deliver the wonder, the knowledge, the national security and economic benefits, and the technology that have been typified by its earlier history. NASA's Strategic Direction and the Need for a National Consensus summarizes the findings and recommendations of the committee.
This book is in full-color - other editions may be in grayscale (non-color). The hardback version is ISBN 9781680920512 and the paperback version is ISBN 9781680920505. The NASA Space Flight Program and Project Management Handbook (NASA/SP-2014-3705) is the companion document to NPR 7120.5E and represents the accumulation of knowledge NASA gleaned on managing program and projects coming out of NASA's human, robotic, and scientific missions of the last decade. At the end of the historic Shuttle program, the United States entered a new era that includes commercial missions to low-earth orbit as well as new multi-national exploration missions deeper into space. This handbook is a codification of the "corporate knowledge" for existing and future NASA space flight programs and projects. These practices have evolved as a function of NASA's core values on safety, integrity, team work, and excellence, and may also prove a resource for other agencies, the private sector, and academia. The knowledge gained from the victories and defeats of that era, including the checks and balances and initiatives to better control cost and risk, provides a foundation to launch us into an exciting and healthy space program of the future.
Protecting Earth's environment and other solar system bodies from harmful contamination has been an important principle throughout the history of space exploration. For decades, the scientific, political, and economic conditions of space exploration converged in ways that contributed to effective development and implementation of planetary protection policies at national and international levels. However, the future of space exploration faces serious challenges to the development and implementation of planetary protection policy. The most disruptive changes are associated with (1) sample return from, and human missions to, Mars; and (2) missions to those bodies in the outer solar system possessing water oceans beneath their icy surfaces. Review and Assessment of Planetary Protection Policy Development Processes addresses the implications of changes in the complexion of solar system exploration as they apply to the process of developing planetary protection policy. Specifically, this report examines the history of planetary protection policy, assesses the current policy development process, and recommends actions to improve the policy development process in the future.
