International Agreement On Asteroid Threat Cooperation

A United Nations Committee reacted very fast after the striking coincidences of the asteroid 2012 DA14 flying close to the Earth, and a large meteor crash in Russia's Chelyabinsk region on February 15, agreeing on an international asteroid warning network just one week later. A UN statement mentioned these incidents as an example why a coordinated international effort is needed to predict, and if necessary, mitigate such threats posed by near-Earth objects in the future. The issue was one of the key items on the agenda of the UN Scientific and Technical Subcommittee which concluded its 50th session on 22 February in Vienna.

The UN Subcommittee endorsed the report of its long-standing Working Group on Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) that recommended the establishment of an international asteroid warning network (IAWN) by linking together the institutions that are already performing many of the functions, including discovering, monitoring and physically characterizing the potentially hazardous NEO population and maintaining an internationally recognized clearing house for the receipt, acknowledgment and processing of all NEO observations. IAWN would also recommend criteria and thresholds for notification of an emerging impact threat, as well as a strategy using well-defined communication plans and procedures to assist Governments in their response to predicted impact consequences. A space mission planning advisory group (SMPAG) should be established by those Member States of the United Nations that have space agencies. This group, of representatives of space-faring nations and other relevant entities, would set the framework, timeline and options for initiating and executing space mission response activities. These recommendations will be looked at by the whole UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, at its fifty-sixth session from 12 to 21 June this year.

"Already in 1995, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) organized the United Nations International Conference on Near-Earth Objects in New York to sensitize Member States to the potential threat of near-Earth objects, given the global consequences of their impact," Mazlan Othman, Director of UNOOSA, said at a press conference that discussed recommendations for an international response to the problem, as proposed by the UN Action Team on NEOs.

Other key items for discussion by the Subcommittee included sustainable future use of outer space, space debris mitigation, disaster management and space weather research. In the two week session, the Subcommittee also debated recent developments in global navigation satellite systems, safe use of nuclear power sources in outer space, the use of the geostationary orbit, and matters related to remote sensing of the Earth by satellites, including applications for developing countries.