[Kosh]

Coolish?

Russia is considering sending a spacecraft to deflect a large asteroid and prevent a possible collision with Earth, according to a radio interview by the head of the country's space agency. Anatoly Perminov said the space agency will hold a meeting soon to assess a mission to Apophis, and said NASA, ESA, the Chinese space agency and others would be invited to join the project. Apophis is a 270-meter (885-foot) asteroid that was spotted in 2004. It is projected to come within 29,450 kilometers (18,300 miles) of Earth in 2029, and currently has an estimated 1-in-250,000 chance of hitting Earth in 2036.

A panel at the recent American Geophysical Union conference stressed that asteroid deflection is a international issue.

Are they going to send Bruce Willis up as well?

EDIT: Fixed the quote and URL tags.

[Solatar]

Irrelevant because we're all going to die in 2012 anyway.

All joking aside; interesting articles.

[Rodo]

Strange... I must have missed the day when the Russians became worried about the world's safety (along with US).

The article says that NASA is downgrading the possible hit threat posed by Apophis so this mission is kinda nonessential, yet this could be used to actually learn something about how to deflect an asteroid rather than just "thinking how to do it, NASA style" ... I mean it's not like they are gonna be up to the challenge if something comes up.

anyway... I just hope the Russians don't deflect it towards earth.

[Polpolion]

Strange... I must have missed the day when the Russians became worried about the world's safety (along with US).

What, do the Russians live on Mars or something?

[Mongoose]

Pulling off a project like this for this particular asteroid is rather silly, since odds are its collision probability will drop to 0 as we get a better picture of its trajectory, but I'm actually in favor of doing some concrete work on a concept like this.  Someday down the line, we're going to find a piece of rock out there that's on a collision course with us (assuming, hopefully, that we find it before said collision), and we'd better have the right technology and know-how to deal with it when that time comes.

[Ace]

Strange... I must have missed the day when the Russians became worried about the world's safety (along with US).

What, do the Russians live on Mars or something?

Don't be ridiculous, they live on Venus.

[Nuke]

dont deflect it, capture it, i always thought the sky needed another moon anyway.

[watsisname]

Awesome idea Nuke!  I shall capture it for you.

*concentrates*

HRNGGGGGGGGGG

*eyes bulge out*

[Locutus of Borg]

Can't we just use a Goa'uld cargo ship and be done with it?

[Retsof]

dont deflect it, capture it, i always thought the sky needed another moon anyway.

Raw meatals for all!  or whatever resourse happens to be prevelant... if any...

[Nuke]

land ion thrusters on the rock then push it so that it hits the atmosphere and aerobreaks.

[Desertfox287]

dont deflect it, capture it, i always thought the sky needed another moon anyway.

Raw meatals for all!  or whatever resourse happens to be prevelant... if any...

We haven't even gone back to Luna yet, what makes you think we'll go to this new moon

[Scotty]

land ion thrusters on the rock then push it so that it hits the atmosphere and aerobreaks.

That killed something like a million people in Arthur C. Clarke's Hammer of God (or was it 100 million?)

[Nuke]

shhhhh, dont warn em

[Kosh]

Pulling off a project like this for this particular asteroid is rather silly, since odds are its collision probability will drop to 0 as we get a better picture of its trajectory, but I'm actually in favor of doing some concrete work on a concept like this.  Someday down the line, we're going to find a piece of rock out there that's on a collision course with us (assuming, hopefully, that we find it before said collision), and we'd better have the right technology and know-how to deal with it when that time comes.

Well it does give good practice, this way when an actual asteroid comes our way wanting to smack us we would be depending on tried and true method of knocking it off course, not depending on an untested theoretical model.

[StarSlayer]

Strange... I must have missed the day when the Russians became worried about the world's safety (along with US).

What, do the Russians live on Mars or something?

Don't be ridiculous, they live on Venus.

C'mon, the natural homeworld for Soviets in Space! is of course the Red Planet.