The European Space Agency (ESA) began conducting its first ever mock asteroid drills in an effort to gain intelligence on potential problems and solutions in order to handle future asteroid impacts.

The effect an asteroid can have when impacting the Earth varies greatly on several factors such as the size, density, speed, and impact location. An asteroid could simply burn up in the Earth's atmosphere or even wipe out entire civilizations.

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ESA is focusing on asteroids that would have an effect in between those two scenarios. For example, the Chelyabinsk event where a 3,300-ton meteor exploded just over 60 ft over Russia injuring over 1,500 people while causing massive damages and the spread of debris for miles.

ESA is now in collaboration with Germany and Switzerland-based organizations with expertise in national disaster response, and held a two-day alert simulation of several potential asteroids with various sizes. 

The national disaster teams responded to hypothetical asteroids ranging from impacts of within 30 days to an impact of within one hour. The mock drill experts found that the different variations of asteroid sizes and warning times determine what measures authorities can take.

"For example, within about three days before a predicted impact, we'd likely have relatively good estimates of the mass, size, composition and impact location," says Gerhard Drolshagen of ESA's NEO team. "All of these directly affect the type of impact effects, amount of energy to be generated and hence potential reactions that civil authorities could take."

The drill showed that ESA could then be able to give authorities information about the asteroid impact, the effect it could have, as well as recommended responses ranging from a simple warning urging people to stay indoors away from windows or a larger warning implementing full-on relief efforts.

Problems were also found during the mock drill such as "the need to learn what the requirements of local governments are, drawing up timetables for disseminating information, and the need to coordinate with international bodies like the UN for global responses."

This is just the first of many drills to come, as ESA already plans another drill sometime early next year and will be including more countries. 

Tagsasteroid, drill, european space agency, ESA, Chelyabinsk, meteor, National Disaster Response Force