Russia Plans To Divert Asteroid 305
CyberDong writes "Roscosmos, Russia's Federal Space Agency, will start working on a project to save planet Earth from a possible collision with Asteroid Apophis, which may happen in 2036. NASA specialists believe that the collision is extremely unlikely. Russian specialists will choose the strategy and then invite the world's leading space agencies to join the project."
asteroid (Score:5, Informative)
Even if Apophis has no chance of hitting Earth, attempting to divert the asteroid farther from Earth may have value as a test of our ability to do so. I would however, prefer that they did such a test on an asteroid that is not due to pass so close to Earth any time soon.
Russian hot air (Score:4, Informative)
Having lived for most of my life in the "east" under Communism, I am sure that this announcement is hot air...along the lines of nationalistic-pride type of goals that both the U.S. and USSR used to pump out on a regular basis during the cold war. Russia can barely keep up with paying their military bills; their nuclear subs are barely staying afloat and space program is not doing well [bu.edu]; it's unthinkable that in this economic climate they will spend the kind of money required to accomplish this.
Even if it did hit... (Score:5, Informative)
Also, this. [wikipedia.org] Looks like Russia has a lot more at stake then America does.
( In before [citation needed] )
Re:Sounds Fishy (Score:4, Informative)
Instead of being insulting, why not read it yourself?
A small estimated Earth impact probability remained for 2036.
and
While the potential for impact in 2036 will likely be excluded in 2013 (if not 2011) using ground-based optical
measurements,
No, the odds of impact aren't zero. But they're not anywhere near high enough to be really freaked, either. You're more likely to die of swine flu in the US, after all. So no, we astrophysicists are not trying to treat you like a child, we're trying to explain to you what these odds mean.
(Note that no one is saying that we shouldn't look at ways to protect ourselves from asteroids in general. But this particular politician's claims and sources seem questionable and I, for one, don't think he's going to lead us to any real improvements in our protection.)
Re:If it's not broken, why are you fixing it? (Score:3, Informative)
Odds of winning powerball jackpot: 1:195,249,054. So, order of magnitude estimate, you are somewhere around 20 times as likely to die because of Apophis as you are to win Powerball. And it is 800 times more likely that Apophis will hit the Earth than any single random powerball ticket being the jackpot winner.
Knowing the risk doesn't somehow change the meaning of the odds.
Re:Can we.... (Score:1, Informative)
Peter Stormare is Swedish damnit! :)
He does make for a good insane russki though
Re:In Soviet Russia. (Score:3, Informative)
If you were in 1910 Russia, asteroid hits YOU.