¹²³
¼½¾
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2008
- Messages
- 3,466
- Likes
- 30
- Points
- 48
Vlad Putin, we’re sorry we ever made fun of you. In an interview today with Voice of Russia radio, Russia’s space agency chief said discussions would begin soon over a plan to save the world from a collision with a massive asteroid.
It’s not clear how, exactly, the Russians plan to deflect Apophis, a chunk of rock the size of two and a half soccer fields that was first discovered by astronomers in 2004. Anatoly Perminov, the space agency head, promised that there would be “no nuclear explosions” and that everything would be done “on the basis of the laws of physics.”
Astronomers initially guessed that Apophis had a reasonably good chance of smashing into Earth on its first flyby; NASA now reckons that the chances of that have gone from slim (one-in-45,000) to almost none (four-in-a million). But despite the lower NASA estimate, the Russians aren’t so sure. Perminov said the asteroid “will surely collide with the Earth in the 2030s.”
Of course, that gives the Russians plenty of time to recruit a telegenic team of cosmonauts to neutralize the threat from Apophis. May we suggest an online contest, à la Miss Atom?
In fairness, the Russians aren’t the only ones thinking about saving the Earth from asteroids. Alexis Madrigal of Wired Science has an excellent write-up of some of the options. The first is the Armageddon approach, knocking the asteroid off course with a nuclear blast or a collision. The second, Madrigal writes, is a “shepherding” operation that would slowly alter the asteroid’s trajectory in space. Either way, the reality is a bit less made-for-Hollywood: Asteroid-deflection would demand a lot of international cooperation.
And a lot of money. Perminov’s take? It’s worth the investment. "People’s lives are at stake,” he said. “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.”
Link
