The UN-mandated Space Mission Planning Advisory Group meets at Politecnico di Milano
The Space Mission Planning Advisory Group (SMPAG), an international group mandated by the United Nations, plays a critical role in preparing global responses to potential threats posed by Near-Earth Objects (NEOs).
Its mission is to plan activities for the mitigation of NEO threats through collaborative efforts across member states. SMPAG is composed of delegations from all around the world (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/smpag).
On October 10th and 11th, the 23rd SMPAG meeting will be hosted by Politecnico di Milano, who is part of the Italian Space Agency delegation.
The event is sponsored by Politecnico di Milano and the ERC project GREEN SPECIES.
Delegates from around the world will discuss the upcoming 2025 Planetary Defense Conference and its hypothetical asteroid impact exercise, a key focus of SMPAG's current efforts.
SMPAG delegations are working on the mission design as well as on procedural and legal aspects of this synthetic planetary defence missions, with the aim to provide consolidated recommendations by SMPAG members for decision-makers, in response to this hypothetical impact scenario.