NEO Information Analysis and Warning Network Workshop
When: Monday, January 18, 2010
to Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Where: Mexico City, Mexico
The workshop, which was hosted by the Ministry of ForeignAffairs of Mexico, was held in direct support of the work of Action Team 14 of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). It included experts in the science of near Earth objects, disaster management and communications, space law, and space policy. Workshop members included three astronauts from ASE.
The need for an IAWN had been identified in Asteroid Threats: A Call for a GlobalResponse, a report prepared by an expert panel convened by ASE to assist the work of the UN COPUOS Action Team on Near-Earth Objects (AT-14), which was established in 2001. Recognizing that Near-Earth Object impacts represent a global, long-term threat to our collective welfare, the ASE report stated that international preparations under the endorsement of the United Nations are the best way for our society to identify a NEO impact threat and decide an effective prevention or disaster response measures.