ESA is hosting the International Academy of Astronautic’s 4th Planetary Defence Conference (PDC 2015), entitled ‘Assessing Impact Risk & Managing Response’, at the Agency’s ESRIN establishment, near Rome, 13–17 April 2015. A media briefing was held this morning, to update media on the conference and provide preliminary findings.
PDC 2015 will provide a forum for the world’s top experts from space agencies, academia and industry to present the latest research and discuss current scientific understanding of the risk posed by asteroids that could potentially strike our planet.
Topics to be discussed at PDC 2015 include planetary defence, the continuing international search for undiscovered NEOs, the state of scientific knowledge of asteroids and their physical characteristics, mitigation techniques, future deflection missions, impact warning and effects, civil response and education. The conference will include an exercise where participants will simulate the decision-making process for developing deflection and civil defence responses to a hypothetical asteroid impact threat.
Media briefing 16 April
At today’s media briefing, the following experts spoke:
Dr Detlef Koschny, Head of NEO Segment, ESA Space Situational Awareness Programme
The Planetary Defence Conference: Global cooperation against asteroid threats
Dr Lindley Johnson, NEO Programs Executive, Science Mission Directorate, HQ NASA
Finding asteroids & avoiding impacts: space agencies taking action to prevent future catastrophe
Debbie Lewis, Director, Resilience Planning at Axiom (Alderney) Ltd.
Responding to asteroid threat scenarios – The importance of impact simulation exercises
Dr William Ailor, Distinguished Engineer, The Aerospace Corporation, PDC 2015 co-chair
Richard Tremayne-Smith, Advisor, The Secure World Foundation, PDC 2015 co-chair
Presentation of findings PDC 2015
Downloads
The presentation files may be downloaded via this link.
Additional links
PDC 2015 webcast – full daily proceedings
https://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/ESA_Live
Replay daily webcasts
https://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Sets/PDC2015
Detlef Koschny Credit: ESA CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
Ettore Perozzi, site manager, briefs media on activities in ESA’s NEO Coord Centre at ESRIN. Credit: ESA CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
Richard Tremayne-Smith & Bill Ailor Credit: ESA CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
Debbie Lewis Credit: ESA CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
Lindley Johnson Credit: ESA CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
Planetary Defense Conference, 2015, ESA/ESRIN, Frascati, Italy. Credit: ESA CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
Taping Planetary Radio at ASI, Rome, during #PDC2015, 15 April 2015. Some top asteroid folks on stage (L-R): Mat Kaplan, Bruce Betts, Lindley Johnson, Detlef Koschny, Paul Chodas, Fabrizio Bernardi and Amy Mainzer. Credit: ESA CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
Meteor(ite) on the wall at #PDC2015 Credit: ESA CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
The host’s view! Credit: ESA CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
PDC 2015 13-17 April 2015, ESA/ESRIN, Frascati, Italy Credit: ESA – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
Discussion: no comments