Russia may send spacecraft to knock away asteroid

Don't really know the science... or the math, so I'm not going to get in a debate on how close this actually is going to be... but, apparently it's going to come close enough for Russia to worry about this to think of an idea on how to take the asteroid off course.

Interesting article none-the-less.

Source: Yahoo News/Assoc Press

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.

apophis.... of all possible doomsday events, this one scares me the most.. en.wikipedia.org... i wondered when id hear about it again... most intresting that the russians think it close enough to try to do something about it... freaky really.. perhaps this is the reason for the norwegian seed vault...? who knows..

reply to post by x2Strongx


Well, this is certainly something to take notice of when the Russians start to get jittery.

Where the hell's Bruce Willis when you need him ?

It would be interesting to know if the Americans and we Brits are looking at avertion plans too.

Woody

btw - luuurrrvin the new avatar

reply to post by woodwytch


Can you imagine a tsar bomb going off in space. That would be a sight to see!


Thanks for the feedback on the avatar... I think I found one that fits... for a while anyway.

Hopefully, they send a better crew than what they did on Armageddon. I can just imagine one of the guys going nutz riding the nuclear weapon like a horse. Any volunteers?

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