Russia is capable of building machinery to fight the asteroid hazard

Monday, September 16, 2019

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Russia is capable of building machinery to fight the asteroid hazard, Federal Space Agency deputy head Viktor Remishevsky said on Tuesday. “The Russian missile industry is capable of manufacturing anti-asteroid systems if necessary,” he said. “So far, there are no techniques to use the existent space machinery for fighting asteroids.” The asteroid danger is not on the Federal Space Agency program. “If a method of suppressing this danger with space machinery is found, we will make such systems. Anyway, the missile industry can do that,” he said. Asteroids are a problem to be tackled through international cooperation, Remishevsky said. “Research satellites, telescopes and land-based infrastructure of the Russian Academy of Sciences must supply information about the asteroid danger,” he said. The Applied Astronomy Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences has identified about 400 asteroids and over 30 comets that may endanger the Earth in the future. Asteroid 2907, which has over one kilometer in diameter, is the largest concern. Experts believe that this asteroid may ram the Earth on December 16, 2880. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has called for comprehensive studies of the asteroid hazard. Scientists will calculate the orbits of no less than 90% of asteroids, whose diameter exceeds one kilometer and which may come close to the Earth under certain circumstances, within the next year.

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