EU-ESA workshop on Near-Earth Objects: DG DEFIS and ESA discuss warning coordination in case of imminent impactors 

On 12-14 December 2022, DG DEFIS and ESA met for this year’s edition of their annual workshop on Near-Earth Objects (NEO). This year, the three-day workshop explored the possibilities of increasing the networking of parties involved in the process of discovering, acknowledging and following up NEOs, i.e. space rocks approach the Earth or entering the atmosphere of the Earth. 

Over the course of four sessions, participants learned and discussed new developments and updates to imminent impactor services, observatories and observation networks for imminent impactors, imminent impactor observation opportunities by spacecraft, and fireball networks and other sensing capabilities. 

Building on the impact of 2022 EB5 on 11 March 2022, participants agreed to increase the level of coordination and cooperation incl. asteroid discoverers and observers, NEOCP object analysts, spacecraft operators and mission planners and fireball network operators. They also decided to establish a network of related experts and a communication protocol to ensure that relevant information about imminent impactors reaches all possible interested parties. 

Background 

NEO is a subcomponent of the Space Situational Awareness (SSA) component of the EU Space Programme. It aims at coordinating and improving European capabilities and activities related to the monitoring of space rocks whose orbits approach or cross the Earth's orbit. 

To this end, the EU supports activities that map Member States' capabilities to detect and monitor NEOs, promote networking among Member States' facilities and research centres through a yearly conference, develop a European catalogue of physical properties of NEOs, and develop a routine rapid response service that can characterize newly detected NEOs. 

This workshop is an ESA deliverable as part of its Contribution Agreement with DG DEFIS in the implementation of the NEO subcomponent of the EU Space Programme. 

More information  

• Regulation (EU) 2021/696
• Near-Earth Objects - European Commission
• NEOCC - NEO
• EU-ESA Workshop on NEO Imminent Impactors Warning Coordination