NASA Holds Fifth Planetary Defense Tabletop Exercise

NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of State Office of Space Affairs recently held the fifth biennial Planetary Defense Interagency Tabletop Exercise to enhance preparedness for potential asteroid threats, NASA said.

Held at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, the exercise simulated a hypothetical scenario where an asteroid with a 72 percent chance of impacting Earth in approximately 14 years was detected.

Nearly 100 representatives from U.S. government agencies and, for the first time, international collaborators participated in the event, discussing potential national and global responses.

The tabletop exercise also incorporated data from NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirecting Test mission, which demonstrated the possibility of altering an asteroid’s course through kinetic impact.

Lindsey Johnson, planetary defense officer emeritus at NASA headquarters, highlighted the exercise’s importance in improving planetary defense preparedness.

In line with the exercise, NASA continues to develop the Near-Earth Object Surveyor, an infrared space telescope aimed at enhancing early detection of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects.

A detailed report outlining the exercise’s strengths, identified gaps and recommendations for improvement will also be published.