Russia may send spacecraft to knock away asteroid By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's space agency chief said Wednesday a spacecraft may be dispatched to knock a large asteroid off course and reduce the chances of earth impact, even though U.S. scientists say such a scenario is unlikely. Anatoly Perminov told Golos Rossii radio the space agency would hold a meeting soon to assess a mission to Apophis. He said his agency might eventually invite NASA, the European Space Agency, the Chinese space agency and others to join the project. When the 270-meter (885-foot) asteroid was first discovered in 2004, astronomers estimated its chances of smashing into Earth in its first flyby, in 2029, at 1-in-37. Further studies have ruled out the possibility of an impact in 2029, when the asteroid is expected to come no closer than 18,300 miles (29,450 kilometers) from Earth's surface, but they indicated a small possibility of a hit on subsequent encounters. (There's more to the story, but I didn't bother posting it because it wasn't any fun! You can read about it at the AP site.) Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. *** ** When I read it, the very first thing that occured to me was ...what if they hit the thing and something goes wrong ....and it sends the asteroid right on a collision course for the Earth??!! Wouldn't that be great ...all of your troubles, all of the problems on Earth would be solved in an instant. Pretty neat, huh? Everyone is always asking how to solve the world's problems, etc. Well, here we go! Problems solved for all eternity. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Baron Max
Well The fact that Jupiter could potientally push a asteroid as large as 5.59 Miles.(9km) in to the earths orbital path at any time from within range of 7.2 AU. of the Sun;Defines that a already Near Earth Object would be subject to directional change making 18,600 miles a direct hit! (Imapct). So in a comparitive, it would be a good idea to have a vehilce that could alter such a Asteroid. In Solar motion, the motion of the sun: changes curviture as it passes though the galaxy moving around asteroids that can be later pushed by jupiter into the earths orbit. The event that sunspots are in their increase in number on the suns surface, showing that the sun is increaseing in distrubance; also appears to warrant having such a project in production. The Moon is likly to be a place of impact if it is a medium mass asteroid.? DwayneD.L.Rabon
