Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Russia Plans To Divert Asteroid

Posted by samzenpus on from the Bruce-Willis-approved dept.

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."

2 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. asteroid by wizardforce · · Score: 4, 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.

    --
    Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
  2. Even if it did hit... by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 5, Informative
    From the Wikipedia:

    Any impact would be extremely detrimental to an area of thousands of square kilometres, but would be unlikely to have long-lasting global effects, such as the initiation of an impact winter.

    Also, this. Looks like Russia has a lot more at stake then America does.

    ( In before [citation needed] )