European operational initiative on NEO hazard monitoring #28

Abstract

An operational approach to NEO hazard monitoring has been recently developed at European level within the framework of the Space Situational Awareness program (SSA) of the European Space Agency (ESA). Through federating European assets and profiting from the expertise developed in European universities and research centers, it has been possible to start the deployment of the so-called SSA-NEO segment. This initiative aims to provide a significant contribution to the worldwide effort to the discovery and characterization of the Near-Earth Object population, to the computation of the associated hazards, and to the study of the possible mitigation measures. The SSA-NEO segment is intended to work in close cooperation with and to be complemented by the other NEO-related programs of the European Commission. A major achievement in this respect has been the inauguration in May 2013 of the ESA NEO Coordination Centre located at ESRIN (Frascati, Italy), whose services and operations are discussed in detail.