• Russia sending spacecraft to knock out Earth-Killing Asteroid
    189 replies, posted
[quote]MOSCOW – Russia is considering sending a spacecraft to a large asteroid to knock it off its path and prevent a possible collision with Earth, the head of the country's space agency said Wednesday. Anatoly Perminov said the space agency will hold a meeting soon to assess a mission to Apophis, telling Golos Rossii radio that it would invite NASA, the European Space Agency, the Chinese space agency and others to join the project once it is finalized. When the 270-meter (885-foot) asteroid was first discovered in 2004, astronomers estimated the chances of it smashing into Earth in its first flyby in 2029 were as high as 1-in-37, but have since lowered their estimate. Further studies ruled out the possibility of an impact in 2029, when the asteroid is expected to come no closer than 18,300 miles (29,450 kilometers) above Earth's surface, but they indicated a small possibility of a hit on subsequent encounters. In October, NASA lowered the odds that Apophis could hit Earth in 2036 from a 1-in-45,000 as earlier thought to a 1-in-250,000 chance after researchers recalculated the asteroid's path. It said another close encounter in 2068 will involve a 1-in-330,000 chance of impact. Without mentioning NASA findings, Perminov said that he heard from a scientist that Apophis is getting closer and may hit the planet. "I don't remember exactly, but it seems to me it could hit the Earth by 2032," Perminov said. "People's lives are at stake. We should pay several hundred million dollars and build a system that would allow to prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people," Perminov said. Scientists have long theorized about asteroid deflection strategies. Some have proposed sending a probe to circle around a dangerous asteroid to gradually change its trajectory. Others suggested sending a spacecraft to collide with the asteroid and alter its momentum, or using nuclear weapons to hit it. Perminov wouldn't disclose any details of the project, saying they still need to be worked out. But he said the mission wouldn't require any nuclear explosions. Hollywood action films "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon," have featured space missions scrambling to avoid catastrophic collisions. In both movies space crews use nuclear bombs in an attempt to prevent collisions. "Calculations show that it's possible to create a special purpose spacecraft within the time we have, which would help avoid the collision without destroying it (the asteroid) and without detonating any nuclear charges," Perminov said. "The threat of collision can be averted." Boris Shustov, the director of the Institute of Astronomy under the Russian Academy of Sciences, hailed Perminov's statement as a signal that officials had come to recognize the danger posed by asteroids. "Apophis is just a symbolic example, there are many other dangerous objects we know little about," he said, according to RIA Novosti news agency. [/quote] Source: [url]http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091230/ap_on_sc/eu_russia_asteroid_encounter[/url] Where's Bruce Willis?!
Let's blow that fucker up. :frogc00l:
1 in 45,000 is pretty unlikely, why are they even doing anything.
[QUOTE=JordaNN;19300035]1 in 45,000 is pretty unlikely, why are they even doing anything.[/QUOTE] By astronomical standards, it's a frigging huge chance.
Just watch them knock the asteroid into a path closer to the Earth.
To see if we can.
Good, i'm glad someone is actually doing something about it rather than cutting all of the space programs budget (Yes you obama).
[URL=http://img24.imageshack.us/i/apophis.jpg/][IMG]http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/5204/apophis.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [editline]09:22AM[/editline] [QUOTE=MisterMooth;19300061]Just watch them knock the asteroid into a path closer to the Earth.[/QUOTE] Probably this.
I reckon if there's any time to start planning such a deflection system, now should be it, we have the science/technology to start researching into it, and it could also lead to answers as to what we're going to do about the ever growing amount of space junk in our orbit
Shit... that's a disconcerting thought, an asteroid coming that close to Earth.
[QUOTE=Canuhearme?;19299963] Where's Bruce Willis?![/QUOTE] [img]http://scenas.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/img_6.jpg[/img] Yippee ki-ay, motherfucker.
Go Russia! Do it!
[QUOTE=MisterMooth;19300061]Just watch them knock the asteroid into a path closer to the Earth.[/QUOTE] Lookin forward to it. [img]http://www.gstatic.com/hostedimg/7eb070e84dfba034_large[/img]
They will make it hit the US
It's nice to see everyone working together.
[QUOTE=MisterMooth;19300061]Just watch them knock the asteroid into a path closer to the Earth.[/QUOTE] Knowing russia, they'll do exactly this.
[QUOTE=Tools;19300637]Knowing russia, they'll do exactly this.[/QUOTE] Agree.
commie bastids tryina take out the good ol us of a i'll show em what fer mildred get the twelve gauge
Didn't scientists in the Netherlands, in collaboration with other EU countries, develop a sort of thumper that hits the asteroid at massive speed so that it'll be knocked away?
Heh surprised that it's Russians that are taking the initiative after all the Hollywood shit.
Aim it towards North Korea. They had it coming. (And yes, I know the impact will likely send up so much debris in the air to block out the sun, drop the water's pH levels, and set fire to everything within a 1000 mile radius, but that's an acceptable loss.)
[QUOTE=Combine 177;19300643]Agree.[/QUOTE] Dumb.
So they've designed and constructed the biggest nuclear devices in the history of mankind, which would probably be great for asteroid-busters, and they don't even consider them as one possible avenue to take? Surely you'd want MULTIPLE plans for such an event (a large asteroid on a collision course with us), given that the existence of our entire species may be at stake. I wouldn't completely rule out blowing it into a billion bits as one of those possible plans. No doubt most of the pieces left from the explosion would burn up in the atmosphere (hell, most might miss completely if we blow the fuck out of it when it's far enough away from Earth).
I say don't risk it, it will probably end up altering the course so that it will later come back and have an even bigger chance
At least the possible hit on 2029 was ruled out.
And if it doesn't work, film it, put it on TV and it will be reality TV that's like a movie.
[QUOTE=sltungle;19300867]So they've designed and constructed the biggest nuclear devices in the history of mankind, which would probably be great for asteroid-busters, and they don't even consider them as one possible avenue to take? Surely you'd want MULTIPLE plans for such an event (a large asteroid on a collision course with us), given that the existence of our entire species may be at stake. I wouldn't completely rule out blowing it into a billion bits as one of those possible plans. No doubt most of the pieces left from the explosion would burn up in the atmosphere (hell, most might miss completely if we blow the fuck out of it when it's far enough away from Earth).[/QUOTE] With a nuclear device there's still a large risk that alot of the debree will fall into the Earth's atmosphere. I really appreciate that they are considering doing this. Even if the chances of it colliding with Earth are slim, this could be a means of advancing our "Asteroid buster"-technology.
[QUOTE=Identity;19300710]Aim it towards North Korea. They had it coming. (And yes, I know the impact will likely send up so much debris in the air to block out the sun, drop the water's pH levels, and set fire to everything within a 1000 mile radius, but that's an acceptable loss.)[/QUOTE] 1000 is a bit of an understatement.
[QUOTE=Mindtwistah;19301170]With a nuclear device there's still a large risk that alot of the debree will fall into the Earth's atmosphere. I really appreciate that they are considering doing this. Even if the chances of it colliding with Earth are slim, this could be a means of advancing our "Asteroid buster"-technology.[/QUOTE] It would probably be reduced to chunks that would burn up, however (also, remember that the vast majority of it would probably be vaporised instantly (pretty much anything in the fireball of a nuke is). Regardless, a lot of small chunks over a wider area would probably be a lot less destructive in the long run than a single, massive impact. An ELE would immediately kill ANYTHING and EVERYTHING directly around it, and would probably kick enough shit up into the atmosphere to severely fuck over everything else on the planet (hence being an extinction level event). A few small chunks might take out multiple cities or something (the odds of one actually hitting a city or populated area are absurdly low anyway. They're statistically more likely to land in water than on land, and even if they hit land, most land is unpopulated), but in the end you're not talking about mass extinction like with the big one. Just localised destruction. Personally I'd rather take my chances with the barrage of smaller ones than the big bad one. Don't get me wrong, though. I'm not saying have 'nuke the fucker' as our primary course of action. Far from it. But it SHOULD still be considered one of MANY possible answers to the threat of such a large asteroid. I think another idea I've heard of is to paint a huge, white patch on the side of any incoming asteroid/meteorite to cause it to shift it's course through radiation pressure (photons impact white area and reflect away, altering it's course VERY slightly. Over time it should be pushed out of harms way).
[IMG]http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/5300/dig300mc0.jpg[/IMG]
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