People First: UARS to crash - but no one knows where.

There used to be a cold-war parlour game: what would you do in the four minutes after the sirens went off. Men and women (who Hite had recently said needed seven minutes to reach fulfilment) often had different answers.

But tomorrow, millions will (if they happen to have access to the information - there may be no sirens) have 20 minutes to prepare.

Running will be pointless: the satellite that is the size of one of the USA's hideous yellow school buses and weighs almost as much as three Rolls Royce cars will be travelling at a speed twenty five times faster than sound.

In any case, the exact spot will not be determined until moments before impact so you don't know where to run to, or from.

A story in our sister paper BankingInsuraceSecurities.Com sets out much more detail.

For HR people, there must be an issue over how to handle panic if news comes that the satellite is heading for a town where you have offices. How do you tell people, there is no point in evacuating?

Aside from direct impact, there is the question of flying debris, expected to cover a large area, although NASA have been vague about just how large. In part, that is because there are too many variables in the possible terrain it will fall into.

So, here' s your chance to have your say: what would you, as an HR professional do if you hear that the satellite is likely to crash near your office? And what would you, as an individual choose to do in that twenty minutes?