Speaker
Description
The Space Mission Planning Advisory Group (SMPAG) is one of the two UN-endorsed groups that deals with the asteroid impact threat. The other group is called International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN). SMPAG members are space-faring nations, and their task is to discuss how a space-based response to an asteroid impact threat could look like [1].
The critera for SMPAG to become active are:
• The asteroid must have at least 50 m in size, or a corresponding absolute magnitude;
• The expected impact probability must be larger than 1 %;
• The expected impact must be within 50 years from now.
These requirements were exceeded in the fictional (!) asteroid threat scenario set up for this conference.
SMPAG had received the official warning on 01 Aug 2024 and discussed, as if this were real, possible reactions of space agencies. This was done via regular teleconferences every Friday, and a final in-person session at a meeting in Milano, Italy, on 10 + 11 Oct 2024. The recommendation was provided back to the exercise planning team to prepare a second epoch of the simulated threat scenario.
It will also be distributed to decision makers for feedback. After receiving the new epoch 2 scenario, SMPAG will again work on coordinating the tasks to be done by space agencies. The results will be presented to the ’decision makers panel’ at the PDC2025.
In this presentation, we will give more details on how the exercise was implemented in the ongoing SMPAG work to define their work. In particular, it will give information on the lessons learned - what is working well, what is not yet working well, where do we need additional procedures defined, and more.