Comments on: Russia Is Developing a Secret Plan to Divert a Non-Threatening Asteroid

By: Underspot Bay

Underspot Bay — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 18:40:11 +0000

Perminov is silly. LMAO! He’s still living the Cold War between USA (in this case, NASA) and his Russian agency. i’m not american, but poor Perminov! LMAO!

Che! I wanna laugh at him right now! Can I?

By: mike

mike — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:55:07 +0000

I know I’m a bit late to the party but…

This presents a huge opportunity for a lot of good science. Not least of which would be a presence on what is essentially a “free” space vehicle. Imagine what we can gain from a “base” on this rock with imaging, sensor, energy collectors and broadcasting? I wonder if any of the probes that have been built or partially built can be “repurposed” to be planted on Apophis?

Clearly, a better understanding of the trajectory/orbit of this rock is necessary before a knee-jerk repositioning is done. However, given the possibility of a “solar sail” or similar gentle techniques, this is a project that should be done. Watching Apophis for a few more orbits and collecting data would allow fairly precise repositioning and collection of additional data after!

By: Liza

Liza — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:55:24 +0000

We don’t know yet the implications of early deflection of an asteriod, such as creating more risk; we don’t know about all the other bodies out there that will be threats. Some other reports say that an asterioid hit would destroy most of the earth-we will all be in the same boat then, gone. Who will know?

By: Dave E.

Dave E. — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:15:44 +0000

I thought we already had a defense, Bruce Willis :]

By: Iain Ball

Iain Ball — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:34:16 +0000

@Jimbo

No, Carl Sagan would definitely NOT be smiling. In his book “Pale Blue Dot”, he wrong a treatise about the dangers he saw in the proliferation of asteroid deflection technologies. In his view, the risks of such a technology being abused to cause deliberate harm were far greater than the risks of a natural asteroid impact.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 06:07:16 +0000

I look forward to an asteroid hitting the earth, because then there will be shorter lines at the department stores during Christmas rush.

Well, I might not be in line either, but I guess that’s a price worth paying for shorter lines …

By: Brian Too

Brian Too — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:55:00 +0000

I dunno. The odds seem to be smallish, but the reality is if we hit on the 1/250,000 outcome people will legitimately ask what was done to prevent disaster. Millions could die.

I’d say the better rationale to pursue this is to build a capability for the future. We’re talking about trying to alter the course of asteroids that weigh potentially millions of tons. We don’t yet know the practicalities of such a need–is the object solid or not? Where is the centre of gravity and how do we interact with it? Is a gravity tractor a realistic option or is it just a theorists fantasy? Do we push or pull?

I’d hate to have a time come when we need a 100% certain outcome and yet not have any experience whatsoever with moving one of these objects.

By: badnicolez

badnicolez — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:55:21 +0000

While I think we (all of us inhabiting the planet) need some sort of system to deal with potential future extinction events, this is obviously a great excuse for the Russians to build a space-based weapons system without engendering too much worldwide opposition. The guy in charge over there is former KGB, and for many of those guys the Cold War hasn’t yet ended.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:54:27 +0000

“everything (will be done) on the basis of the laws of physics,”. It’s OK everyone, they’re going to use physics!

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:24:36 +0000

For now perhaps we should be more concerned with increasing rainforest destruction, over population and pollution of the air, oceans, land and fresh water instead of spending billions on something that might happen decades from now. Many of the above issues could lead to much human/animal suffering and misery.