NASA Experts Explain How Coronavirus Pandemic Prepares Earth For Asteroid Impact

Experts from NASA explained how the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic could help prepare the world for a potentially destructive impact event caused by an asteroid. The experts noted that the current measures implemented by various countries to control the outbreak teach vital lessons about global preparedness.

Currently, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases all over the world has already reached more than 7.6 million. In response to the ongoing effects of the pandemic, various countries have enacted their own lockdown and quarantine protocols to stop the spread of the virus.

According to scientists from NASA, how the world is currently dealing with the pandemic can be applied to a global response to an approaching asteroid. Aside from positive lessons such as conducting inter-agency and inter-country cooperation, the mistakes committed during the pandemic also provide valuable insight into how global disasters should be dealt with.

“Speaking for myself, the novel coronavirus is a good case study of mistakes to avoid when planning to prevent an asteroid impact,” former NASA astronaut Thomas Jones of the Association of Space Explorers' Near Earth Objects Committee told Space.com.

One of these mistakes is how some nations decided to deal with the outbreak on their own instead of using evidence-backed strategies utilized by other countries. According to Jones, a non-uniformed response to a global disaster could lead to bigger problems.

“This is understandable, but it's not a good model for dealing with an asteroid impact threat,” he stated. “A fragmented, staggered and uneven response to an impact threat is a recipe for delay and inaction, foreclosing options to deflect the asteroid.”

Lindley Johnson, NASA's planetary defense officer and program executive of the space agency's Planetary Defense Coordination Office, noted that one of the most important lessons that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic is the importance of early detection.

Detecting an outbreak before it turns into a global pandemic provides countries with a chance to enact various measures to control local transmissions of the disease. In the case of COVID-19, imposing strict travel restrictions to and from the origins of the outbreak was the initial response of most countries after it was detected.

In a potential impact event, Johnson noted that detecting a hazardous asteroid before it gets too close to Earth will allow agencies to come up with effective solutions to deflect it.

“The first is, of course, the importance of early detection,” he stated. “The earlier you detect the threat, the more chance you have to take actions to prevent it before it can have significant impact.”