Activities in Europe related to the mitigation of the threat from near-Earth objects

This paper summarizes the current NEO-related activities within ESA’s Space Situational Awareness programme. It has successfully federated some existing European assets: The NEODyS system, focussing on the precise orbit computation and impact predictions; the physical properties database as initially set up by the European Asteroid Research Network (EARN), and a priority list which lists NEOs in need of observation. Additionally, several European telescopes are now regularly used for the follow-up and, in a limited way, survey of NEOs. Europe has also been actively involved in setting up a decision process on how to react to an imminent impact threat. And ESA is preparing for a possible asteroid deflection demonstration mission, in collaboration with NASA.