With the coronavirus outbreak, people started to prepare for the danger, which might actually help us when it comes to preparing for an asteroid hitting Earth. We can all learn some very interesting and useful things from what is going on in the world today, and it can help us in better preparing for an asteroid.
What should we do?
Thomas Jones, retired NASA astronaut, stated: “Speaking for myself, the novel coronavirus is a good case study of mistakes to avoid when planning to prevent an asteroid impact.”
The response of humans around the world has shown cooperation with the help of the World Health Organization, even if some of the data given to them was false or incorrect. The response of the organization has been delayed.
Nations chose to do things their way, with international expertise and consultations and responded with their own interests. Manufacturing priorities and resources were allotted, and there were some delays.
Jones also said: “This is understandable, but it’s not a good model for dealing with an asteroid impact threat. A fragmented, staggered, and uneven response to an impact threat is a recipe for delay and inaction, foreclosing options to deflect the asteroid.” He then added that they would need transparent sharing of all the observations of the object, and talking about the prediction of the impact. But all will need to work together.
Jones also stated that every nation might defend themselves unilaterally, things that will lead to wasting time, resources of water, and will increase the risk of failure. Cooperation will give us the best chance to approach the threat properly, and set good deflection missions if they are needed.
