The European Space Agency is getting behind what it's calling the Health Early Warning System (HEWS), which uses its in-orbit satellites to exchange information between teams on the ground that may have trouble communicating in the event of a serious emergency.
Now, why exactly didn't anyone think of this before?
Maybe because their writers were too busy making Monty Python jokes:
"The system will be tested in two different exercise scenarios, one African and one European."
The former, involves a mock infectious disease outbreak in Africa (because such a thing could never happen in Europe, right?), while the latter "simulates a terrorist attack in the centre of a European capital."
And what, pray tell, would be the outcome of such an mock attack, according to the ESA?
"The resulting confusion leads to traffic jams and saturation of the mobile telephone network."
If that's all it takes, then we only have one announcement to make to the people of Europe:
All your capital cities are (already) belong to fictional terrorists.
