Planetary Defense Coordination Office Explained

Planetary Defense Coordination Office
Seal:Planetary Defense Coordination Office seal.png
Jurisdiction:United States
Headquarters:Washington, D.C.
Motto:Hic Servare Diem (Latin)
"Here to Save the Day"[1]
Chief1 Name:Lindley Johnson[2]
Chief1 Position:Planetary Defense Officer
Parent Department:Science Mission Directorate, Planetary Science Division
Parent Agency:NASA
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The Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) is a planetary defense organization established in January 2016 within NASA's Planetary Science Division of the Science Mission Directorate.[3] It includes a Near Earth Observations Program which funds telescopic searches and orbit calculations.[4]

Its mission is to look for and catalogue near-Earth objects such as comets, asteroids, and potentially hazardous objects that could impact Earth, as well as help the U.S. government prepare for a potential impact event (and coordinate efforts to mitigate and deflect potential threats if one is detected).[5]

History

In 2005, the U.S. Congress passed the NASA Authorization Act, which, in part, tasked NASA with finding and cataloguing at least 90% of all near-Earth objects that are 140 meters or larger by 2020.[6] However, that goal was clearly not being met by NASA's Near Earth Object Observations Program, which a 2014 report by the NASA Office of Inspector General pointed out.[7] In June 2015, NASA and National Nuclear Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy, which had been studying impact events on their own, signed an agreement to work in cooperation.[8]

In January 2016, NASA officially announced the establishment of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), appointing Lindley Johnson to lead it as Planetary Defense Officer.[5] [2] [9] The PDCO was given the job of cataloging and tracking potentially hazardous near-Earth objects (NEO), such as asteroids and comets, larger than 30–50 meters in diameter (compare to the 20-meter Chelyabinsk meteor that exploded over Russia in 2013) and coordinating an effective threat response and mitigation effort.[10] [11]

It has been a part of several key NASA missions, including OSIRIS-REx,[12] NEOWISE, and Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). For NEOWISE, NASA worked with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to investigate various impact-threat scenarios in order to learn the best approach to the threat of an incoming impactor. The office will continue to use the polar orbiting infrared telescope NEOWISE to detect any potentially hazardous objects.[13]

Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), a joint project between NASA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, is the first planetary defense mission of NASA.[14] In November 2021, the DART spacecraft was launched with the goal of seeing if it could "alter an asteroid's path, a technique that may be used to defend the planet in the future".[15] The attempt was successful.

In popular culture

The 2021 movie Don't Look Up is about a "planet killer" comet, in which the Planetary Defense Officer is played by Rob Morgan.[16] PDCO chief Lindley Johnson vetted an early draft of the screenplay over two years before the film's 2021 release.[17]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: How a real NASA patch anchors Netflix's 'Don't Look Up' in reality. 2022-01-15. collectSPACE.com. January 28, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220128083954/http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-122321a-dont-look-up-planetary-defense-patch.html. live.
  2. Web site: PDCO Organization . NASA . NASA . December 25, 2021 . November 28, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211128154522/https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/organization/ . live .
  3. News: Sarkar . Monica . NASA Planetary Defense Office set up to save Earth . December 25, 2021 . CNN . January 13, 2016 . December 25, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211225020330/https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/13/world/nasa-planetary-defense/index.html . live .
  4. Web site: Near-Earth Observations (NEO) Program - NASA Science . 2024-07-23 . science.nasa.gov . en-US.
  5. Web site: NASA creates office to coordinate protection against asteroids . . January 11, 2016 . Leonard . David . January 12, 2016 . January 12, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160112031104/http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0111/NASA-creates-office-to-coordinate-protection-against-asteroids . live .
  6. News: Jonah Engel Bromwich . Asteroid Misses Earth Narrowly, by Cosmic Standards . December 25, 2021 . The New York Times . April 19, 2017 . December 25, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211225020938/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/science/asteroid-earth-nasa.html . live .
  7. Book: Martin . Paul K. . NASA’s Efforts to Identify Near-Earth Objects and Mitigate Hazards . September 15, 2014 . NASA Office of Inspector General . December 25, 2021 . December 22, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211222201416/https://oig.nasa.gov/audits/reports/FY14/IG-14-030.pdf . live .
  8. News: Broad . William J. . Agencies, Hoping to Deflect Comets and Asteroids, Step Up Earth Defense . December 25, 2021 . The New York Times . June 18, 2015 . December 25, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211225020936/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/19/science/agencies-make-plans-to-step-up-planetary-defense.html . live .
  9. Web site: Defending Earth against dangerous asteroids: Q&A with NASA's Lindley Johnson . Leonard . David . January 5, 2021 . . October 5, 2021 . October 5, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211005043438/https://www.space.com/defending-earth-asteroids-nasa-lindley-johnson-interview . live .
  10. Web site: Planetary Defense Coordination Office . . December 22, 2015 . January 14, 2016 . July 28, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220728144830/https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/overview/ . live .
  11. News: NASA is opening a new office for planetary defense . January 14, 2016 . . Graham . Templeton . January 12, 2016 . July 6, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170706223602/https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/220745-nasa-is-opening-a-new-office-for-planetary-defense . live .
  12. Web site: OSIRIS-REx . NASA . December 25, 2021 . April 14, 2021 . July 15, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220715120333/https://www.nasa.gov/osiris-rex/ . live .
  13. News: This Is How NASA's Planetary Defense Office Will Protect Planet Earth From Asteroid Collisions . January 18, 2016 . Tech Times . Angela . Laguipo . January 16, 2016 . February 2, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160202022212/http://www.techtimes.com/articles/124600/20160116/this-is-how-nasas-planetary-defense-office-will-protect-planet-earth-from-asteroid-collisions.htm . live .
  14. Web site: Double Asteroid Redirection Test . February 18, 2021 . . February 18, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210218080040/https://dart.jhuapl.edu/ . live .
  15. News: Roulette . Joey . NASA Launches New Mission: Crash Into Asteroid, Defend Planet Earth . December 25, 2021 . The New York Times . November 24, 2021 . June 10, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220610095507/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/24/science/nasa-dart-mission-asteroid.html . live .
  16. News: Tyler Austin Harper . Silicon Valley Won’t Save Us . December 25, 2021 . Slate . December 22, 2021 . December 25, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211225020330/https://slate.com/technology/2021/12/dont-look-up-netflix-climate-change-allegory.html . live .
  17. News: Kluger . Jeffrey . Breaking Down the Mostly Real Science Behind Don’t Look Up . December 25, 2021 . Time . December 21, 2021 . December 25, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211225020330/https://time.com/6130579/dont-look-up-science/ . live .

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