Thank goodness for the Baikonur Cosmodrome (I just love how that rolls off the tongue).
Well, if your SLBM goes haywire and leads the Nords to think aliens are attacking, why not take a hard left turn and ram an asteroid?
If the rumblings of Russia’s space agencies are true, it looks like they’re planning to spool up the Proton rockets and blast the Bejeezus out of poor Apophis, a diminutive comsic rock scheduled for an Earth flyby in 2029. But NASA doesn’t think there’s much chance the asteroid will hit terra firma, AP reports.
When the 270-meter (885-foot) asteroid was first discovered in 2004, astronomers estimated its chances of smashing into Earth in its first flyby, in 2029, at 1-in-37.
Further studies have 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) from Earth’s surface, but they indicated a small possibility of a hit on subsequent encounters.
NASA had put the chances that Apophis could hit Earth in 2036 as 1-in-45,000. In October, after researchers recalculated the asteroid’s path, the agency changed its estimate to 1-in-250,000.
A few years ago space experts feared Apophis would come perilously close to Earth, making it a Level 1 on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale (thanks Wikipedia), but dropped it off the scale after further calculations in 2006.
By the way, Apophis is the Greek word for the Egyptian demon who tries to eat the god Ra.
Makes me kind of want to rent Armageddon again and plan out my End of Days festivities. Or maybe, all us cynics are wrong and the Russkies really will save the Earth.
“People’s lives are at stake. We should pay several hundred million dollars and build a system that would allow us to prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people,” Russia’s space agency chief Anatoly Perminov said.
– Christian
{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
Current Nasa space capacity can be seen plainly as they more or less have to hitch a ride with rich space turists on some cold war russian relic ,russians on the other hand still have the know how and can do if for fraction of the cost .
Russkies just better start a talent show for russia's next Bruce and Ben to do the job.
"Ivan"? What century is this again?
Don't forget to bring your "combination Roooshin phrase book and New Testament Bible" to the Cosmodrome…
Apophis again?? Didn't SG1 take care of him about a half dozen times? Takes a licking and just keeps ticking! Where is Lt Gen Hammond when we need him?
Seriously, if we hit a big bullet with a nuke it could turn in to a shot gun and spray earth with a lot of small but deadly hits.
LMAO.good one
He…just…wont…die!!!
No seriously though – Apophis or no, it can't be a bad idea to invest some money into the future safety of the Earth.
Hell, it doesn't even have to be a big 'end-of-all-life' thing, even a smaller one smacking into a city would be a catastrophy. Why not invest a few (m)/(b)illion to get something that's a viable protection from impacts?
About time someone's going down that route in earnest.
" Ivan's"right & so was the 1978 movie METEOR staring Sean Connery, we need some EW & Orbital delfector for bigger asteroids.
Merge EU spacr program & NASA for sme Project goals. Very doable with Todays Tech.
I strongly believe that the Russian govt. should rather invest in programs that would keep their citizens from becoming alcoholics as a majority of them presently are.
thats the bonus…THEY ARE!
The rocket will be powered using the ultimate power of VODKA!
Sounds like you'd rather they developed a few more ICBMs instead.
Personally I think this swords-into-ploughshares idea might be useful – and it can't hurt to have th etechnology there for when it really is needed.
It just amazes me how the Russian space shuttle looks nothing like the American version, wink, wink…. I guess they have spys in our space program too…
Russia will soon have our defensive missile shield specs, thanks to Obama, so the only other enemy Russia will have is Asteroids I guess…
Except the Russian space shuttle can actually perform fully unmanned flights.
Which one? The two that were scrapped or the one that flew one mission and then was buried in it's hanger?
Forgot to tell you that US space shuttle uses ,many other US rockets use russian rocket motor designs .Name one russian missle that uses US parts. Zero as theirs function better are more powerfoul and are far more advanced.
http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/launch/98...
"Support Faith-based Missile Defense Systems" they'll work just as well. if the russkies can put an R/C tank on the moon surely they can whack an SMT?
Heh, heh, heh… the Russkies may have an R/C tank on the moon, but WE have an R/C rock-picker on MARS!!! Na, nuh, na, nuh, na, naaaaaaaaa…
Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe…
I agree with LTC Kent. Besides what a great excuse to hide a stealth nuke platform in space. Sound far fetched…they have stealth MIRV's. Just looking for boogeymen behind the bushes….lol
Will the Russians be using a pure kinetic weapon or something with a warhead? Probably aren't too many details yet, but it will be interesting to see how they got about this.
Isn't Putin just going to fly up there without his shirt and punch it out of the way?
This will be a good test to see if current technology is even capable of preventing an Armageddon. However I feel too much focus is on asteroids that 'might' hit earth. Not enough on other planets. After all, if another planet's orbit is changed, it's bound to have an affect on us.
The SG1 joke ,I mean.
You know, there is a definite connection with SG-1 here. Astronomers David J Tholen and Roy A Tucker, co-discoverers of the asteroid then known as 2004 MN4 are reportedly fans of the serie and as discoverers, had naming rights on it.
I think the US should develop ultra heavy launch vehicles (bring back Aerojet's 260" diameter solid rocket booster with over 5.8 million pounds of thrust) and load it up with some giga ton nukes) any excuse for the US to continue to research and develop nukes I'm all for it!
Maybe their ICBM will just hit the asteroid with a handle of vodka, and the rock will be so wasted itll wander off into Jupiter or fall asleep and wake up in a different solar system with a bad headache
Lol
Yes, asteroids are a serious threat, and we should keep an eye on them. But this is a very tiny possibility for the near future. Climate change is a real threat and impacting us now.
http://bit.ly/7swxvq
Yea and the entire planet is trying to bankrupt itself to fight climate change because people are being pushed into radical directrions with both economicly distructive ends and a far more authoritative governmental structure. Also guess who gets hurt most by these idea…the poor.
Meanwhile the people pushing the idea have already invested in the companies or areas they have pushed to expand and spend money.
Ahh the fresh smell of rotten politics.
no no no
what if the Russians simply want to "push it" in a new direction
or, the Rock explodes, with shrapnel angled in a certain direction
whats the damage from a 10 meter cubed rock impact on Earth? x100
whatabout a 100 meter sized? x10
or 1Kilometer ? x??
get the idea?
you guys are such linear thinkers- pah!
To be fair, the Torino Scale is a probability. It’s not “not going to hit us”, it’s a “pretty sure it’s not going to hit us”…
When “it” is a rock 2/3 of a kilometre across that would deliver something along the lines of 6 gigatonnes if it hit us, then, even at odds of 250,000 to one, I’me prepared to see someone go and poke it out of the way a bit….
If you're going to refer to Russians as 'Ivan' you'll need to call Yakov Smirnov in Branson so that he can give you an appropriate "In my country…" joke to suit the anti-asteroid mission. And I hope they're planning to use conventional explosives instead of nukes. As long as you're renting all of the old asteroid movies, you should probably rent "Space Cowboys" as well to cover the rogue Russian space nuke plot line.
It is .27km across, you may be confusing the size of the "keyhole" it ought to pass into to hit Earth in 2036. To quote Neil deGrasse Tyson when answering the question "But what if you deflect it accidentally INTO the Keyhole?" he replied "That would be BAD, that would be REALLY BAD. I think I could say you would be VERY unpopular!!!"
The Russians may have the rockets, but that's about all they have. And it's the very point of their appeal to the US and International community. They don't have the astrophysicists, they don't have the computing power but above all, they don't have Arecibo, the giant radar needed to determine precicely the mass of the sucker if you want to hope to budge it in any direction, good or bad, but with better odds on a good one. Nor do they have the mission allready planned to put a transponder on the rock to follow exactly its trajectory. Sure, they want the help from the US! They simply just can't do it without a great deal of help from the US.