About this at a seminar at JSC Russian space systems"Said the director of the Institute space exploration Russian academy Sci. academician Lev Zeleny.
According to him, in 2029 the trajectory of the asteroid's motion will pass quite close to the Earth, and in the next cycle of motion, in 2036, there is a non-zero probability of an asteroid colliding with our planet, the official website of Roscosmos reports.
“The damage that can occur as a result of such an impact is several times greater than the damage that was caused by the fall of the Tunguska meteorite,” says the academician.
According to Zeleny, further study of the asteroid is needed to prevent a collision. As part of this task, as the scientist noted, a spacecraft is being developed at the Lavochkin Scientific and Production Association for the study of Apophis.
If we assume that a collision occurs, the impact of Apophis with a mass of 50 million tons and a diameter of 230 meters will lead to an explosion with a capacity of 500 million megatons, that is, about 100 times more than during the fall of the Tunguska meteorite.
STAY IN TOUCH
Apophis (previously 2004 MN4) is a near-Earth asteroid, discovered in 2004 at Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona, got its own name on July 19, 2005. Named after the ancient Egyptian god Apophis (in the ancient Greek pronunciation - Apophis), a huge serpent , a destroyer who lives in the darkness of the underworld and tries to destroy the Sun during its night transition. The choice of such a name is not accidental, since, according to tradition, the minor planets are called by the names of the Greek, Roman and Egyptian gods. As a result of the approach to Earth in 2029, the asteroid Apophis will change its orbital classification, so the name of the ancient Egyptian god, pronounced in the Greek manner, is very symbolic. There is a version that the scientists Tholen and Tucker, who discovered the asteroid, named it after a character from the Stargate series "Apophis".
Astronomers have calculated the probability of a collision and found that the probability of a collision in 2029 is zero
The asteroid Apophis (99942 Apophis), until recently, was considered one of the most dangerous celestial bodies in the history of mankind. However, everything is not as bad as it seems at first glance.
More than five years have passed since the discovery of the asteroid. Nevertheless, Apophis is still the subject of lively discussions. The reason for this is the nonzero probability of a celestial body colliding with our planet in 2029.
After some time, the staff of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory carried out a recalculation of the trajectory of a celestial body, which made it possible to revise the level of Apophis' asteroid danger. If earlier it was assumed that the probability of an object colliding with the Earth is 1: 45000, now this figure has dropped to 1: 250,000. Thanks to the use of two telescopes (88-inch and 90-inch), specialists from the University of Hawaii even managed to determine the distance at which Apophis will approach Earth in 2029 - 28.9 thousand kilometers.
Now astronomers are concerned about the return of Apophis to our planet in 2036. It is extremely difficult to determine the trajectory of a celestial body for several decades before a possible collision, therefore it is necessary to carry out calculations over time.
Information about the end of the world has reappeared on the Internet - according to the assumptions of scientists, as the media say, from NASA, it will happen in February 2017. And, as always, because of the fall of the asteroid to Earth. Is there a real threat to our planet, how to track a celestial body and prevent a meeting with it at the "Gutenberg Smoking Room" lecture held in Yekaterinburg on Sunday, said an asteroid-comet hazard expert and winner of Science Slam: Battle of the Cities. Chelyabinsk vs. Yekaterinburg Pavel Skripnichenko. For those who did not have time - a retelling of "Moments".
The asteroid-comet hazard is a continuation of the evolution of the formation of cosmic bodies and is absolutely normal. Our planet was born as a result of the collision of a huge number of objects. So, protoplanets in Solar system there used to be about 80, and eight of them survived - everyone knows.
In astronomy, there are no clear definitions, unlike other sciences. Therefore, the concept of "asteroid" is approximate. Officially, it is a small astronomical object, which means a size from 30 meters to several hundred kilometers. It revolves around the Sun - although, most likely, asteroids revolve around other stars. The chemical and spectral composition can be very different.
Most of the "well-mannered", friendly asteroids rotate in the Asteroid Belt. There are ill-mannered asteroids - they break out of their orbits and begin to threaten the inner planets with a collision: Mars, Venus, Earth and everything else. If such asteroids fly to the Sun at a distance of less than 200 million kilometers, they are called "approaching the Earth." They are divided into four classes: Cupids, Apollo, Aten and Atira.
Cupids are well-bred, because they spend 100% of their time outside the Earth's orbit, which is why it is convenient to observe them both at night and during the day, even the smallest ones. Apollo - a little less educated - spend most of their time outside the orbit of the Earth, but sometimes go inside. And internal objects are more difficult to observe, most conveniently - in the evening and in the morning. A small asteroid, in this case, can be opened only when it is outside the Earth's orbit - inside it is lost. Atons - ill-mannered - are usually located inside the Earth's orbit and only partially go beyond it, where astronomers discover them. And there are completely ill-mannered - Atirs. They always live inside the Earth's orbit and at the moment there are only 25 known of them.
According to the International Center for Minor Planets, which collects information from all observatories in the world, there are about 727 thousand asteroids in the solar system. Approximately 15 thousand approaching the Earth, of which 1780 are potentially dangerous, that is, larger than 150 meters.
Panic and talk about the Apocalypse begins at the moment when one of them is able to approach the Earth at a distance of less than 7.5 million km. Such an object must often be observed in order to clarify its orbit and understand that it will definitely not fall on our planet or will fall in 100 years - then there is time to fix it.
How dangerous and possible is a collision in the Earth?
Depending on the size of the asteroid, astronomers share the degree of its threat to the Earth. A global hazard is carried by an object larger than 1 km. The shock wave from a collision with it can go around the Earth several times and cause climate change. When it hits land, a colossal number of dust particles rise into the air, which settle for decades - this is called "asteroid winter". If an asteroid falls into the sea, for example, into the Pacific Ocean, we turn our whole friendly country to the East, wave our hand to Japan and say: "Goodbye."
Regional catastrophes are caused by a collision with an asteroid ranging in size from 100 meters to 1 km. This is billions of dollars in damage, millions of corpses, the disappearance of a state or city — not globally.
An asteroid up to 100 meters in size carries a local threat, but even small ones, 10-15 meters, can lead to human casualties.
To calculate the possibility of a collision with the Earth, you need to take into account the location of other planets, the largest asteroids, light pressure, and other nuances. If you put a pencil on a table on planet Earth, it will remain there. If put in space - it will not stay in place, but will revolve around the Sun. Its orbit will be changed by all the forces that act on it and where it will go - nobody knows. Even very insignificant forces, for example, direct light pressure, affects the motion of the asteroid, gives it additional acceleration, and it flies in the wrong direction.
Astronomers with a high degree of probability know everything large objects, the size of which exceeds 1 km. None of them flies to Earth, and therefore the Apocalypse will not be in the near future. Average, 100-meter asteroids, according to statistics, fall on our planet every five thousand years. The latter arrived about 6.5 thousand years ago. But they, according to NASA, are all known with a probability of 80%.
It is not yet clear what to do with local objects. It is very difficult to open them in advance. There may not even be enough time for one president to call another and coordinate actions. Although in 2009 at the Pulkovo Observatory, 8 km before the entry into the atmosphere, they discovered the same ten-kilometer asteroid, which was the Chelyabinsk one. Fortunately, he fell in South Sudan - and therefore no one wrote about it.
From a science fiction movie to reality: what can save the planet from an asteroid?
Means of impact on an asteroid are divided into three types depending on the time of impact: long-term (when there is a lot of time), short-term (when there is not enough time) and, as our overseas friends love, destruction (an extreme option).
Jet engine. The bottom line: we send a space object to the asteroid, which installs jet engines on it. They turn on and the asteroid flies to the right place. Difficulties: you need to know in advance where to fly and calculate the orbit very accurately - it is worth changing something wrong and the asteroid will fly to Earth even more confidently. In addition, all of our space objects are limited in carrying capacity.
Destruction. The bottom line: we carry out a contact detonation of an asteroid at a depth of at least five meters. Difficulties: such tests cannot be carried out in near-earth space. Fragments of the asteroid can fly in different directions and it is possible that some of them will also go to the Earth. If destroyed, then into small fragments, which will compensate for the atmosphere and one of the nights you can admire the bright sky.
Solar sail in two versions. The bottom line: we stick a special sail into the asteroid that attracts sunlight. By increasing the direct light pressure, the object changes direction. The sail in the mirror format also works. Difficulties: Landing on a space surface is difficult, especially on a mission that has not been tested before. This applies to all options where you need to dock.
Paint, foil and other household items. They are funny options, although some scientists are seriously suggesting. The bottom line: we take a lot of cling film, send it into space, wrap an asteroid in it, and it flies by. An unusual surprise for posterity to which he will return.
Gravity tractor. The bottom line: we put a large space object, similar to the ISS, into orbit of an asteroid, which, due to its own gravity, changes its direction. Difficulties: practically none. According to scientists, the most technically feasible option even now.
Gravity tug. The bottom line: to dock a special object with engines to the asteroid, turn them on and add pressure - either push forward or backward. The main thing is in the right direction. Difficulties: also a feasible option, but more expensive. And, again, it is more difficult for earthlings to land on the surface while it is more difficult for space objects than to go into orbit.
Kinetic Impact. The bottom line: we send something heavy into space, which crashes into the asteroid and it flies in the other direction. Convenient when there is no time at all and do not feel sorry for the fact that it crashes. Difficulties: practically none.
Barrier curtain. Essence: the distribution of small objects in the orbit of the asteroid. Difficulties: practically none, except for providing small objects.
All options have already been calculated and tested in theory, but there is no engineering solution. However, any fiction will become reality if necessary, experts say.
By the way: residents of Finland, the Czech Republic and Poland, who have free 30-40 thousand dollars, contribute to the development of astronomy by connecting to the meteor-bollide network. They install small allsky cameras on the roofs of houses, which monitor the state of space and sky - they observe airplanes, satellites, and sometimes meteors with bollids. The cameras are located at a distance of 10 to 100 km from each other. Thanks to such a network, it is possible to more accurately determine where the celestial body fell and direct the expedition there, as well as calculate how often this happens. It is difficult to build such a network in Russia, but it is worth it - around megacities.
“We want to change the orbit of this satellite,” says Patrick Michel, senior fellow at the National Center scientific research France and one of the leaders of the Aida team - because orbital velocity the satellite around the main body is only 19 centimeters per second ”. Even small changes can be measured from Earth, he adds, by changing Didymoon's orbital period by four minutes.
It is also important to see if the explosive element will fire. “All of the collision models we are working on are based on an understanding of collision physics that has only been tested on a laboratory scale at centimeter targets,” says Michel. Whether these models will work on real asteroids is not yet entirely clear.
Johnson adds that this technology is the most mature - humans have already demonstrated the ability to reach an asteroid, in particular with the Dawn mission to Ceres and the Rosetta mission to comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
In addition to the warhead approach, there is also a gravitational approach - simply place a relatively massive spacecraft in orbit near an asteroid and let their mutual gravitational pull gently steer the object onto a new path. The advantage of this method is that essentially you only need to deliver the spacecraft to its destination. NASA's ARM mission can indirectly test this idea; part of this plan is to return the asteroid to near-Earth space.
However, time will be a key element of such methods; it will take a good four years to assemble space mission beyond Earth's orbit, and the spacecraft would need an extra year or two to reach the desired asteroid. If time is short, you will have to try something else.
Quichen Zhang, a physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, believes lasers will help us. The laser will not detonate an asteroid like some Death Star, but it will vaporize a small part of its surface. Zhang and colleagues worked with experimental cosmologist Philip Lubin to present a suite of orbital simulations to the Astronomical Society The Pacific.
This plan may seem ineffective, but remember that if you start early and work for a long time, you can change the course of the body for many thousands of kilometers. Zhang says the advantage of the laser is that a large laser can be built in Earth orbit without having to fly to an asteroid. A one-gigawatt laser, operating for a month, can move an 80-meter asteroid - like the Tunguska meteorite - by two Earth radii (12,800 kilometers). This is enough to avoid collision.
Another variation of this idea is to send a spacecraft equipped with a less powerful laser, but in this case it will have to reach the asteroid and follow it relatively close. Since the laser will be smaller - in the 20 kW range - it will have to operate for many years, although Zhang's simulations show that a satellite chasing an asteroid could knock it off course in 15 years.
Zhang says that among the benefits of using Earth's orbit is that chasing an asteroid or comet is not as easy as it sounds, despite the fact that we have already done it. “Rosetta was originally supposed to fly to another comet (46P), but the delay in launch caused the original target to leave an attractive position. But if the comet decides to head towards Earth, we will not have the opportunity to change it to a better option. " Keeping track of asteroids is easy, but it still takes at least three years to get there.
Johnson, however, notes one of the biggest problems associated with the use of a laser of any kind: no one has ever launched a kilometer-long object into orbit, let alone a laser or the whole array. “There are many immature moments in this regard; it is not even clear how to reliably convert solar energy into laser energy so that it functions long enough. "
There is also a "nuclear option". If you've seen the movie Armageddon, this option seems simple to you, but in reality it is much more difficult than it seems. "We'll have to ship the whole infrastructure," says Massimiliano Vasile of Straitclyde University. He offers to detonate a nuclear bomb at some distance from the target. As with the laser, the plan is to vaporize some of the surface, thereby creating thrust and changing the asteroid's orbit. “When detonated, you get the benefit of high energy efficiency,” he says. 
While lasers and nuclear bombs can be triggered when the asteroid is closer, even in these cases, the composition of the object will be important, since the evaporation temperature will differ from asteroid to asteroid. Another question is flying rubble. Many asteroids may simply be a collection of rocks that stick together loosely. In the case of such an object, the warhead will not work. The gravity tug will be better - it does not depend on the composition of the asteroid.
Any of these methods, however, can face one final obstacle: politics. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty bans the use and testing of nuclear weapons in space, and putting a gigawatt laser into orbit could make some people nervous.
Zhang notes that if the power of the orbiting laser is reduced to 0.7 gigawatts, it will displace the asteroid by only 0.3 Earth's radius - about 1,911 kilometers. “Small asteroids that can destroy a city are much more common than planetary destroyers. Now imagine that such an asteroid is on a trajectory leading to New York. Depending on the circumstances, an attempt and partly unsuccessful deflection of an asteroid from Earth could shift the crash site to London, for example. If there is any risk of error, the Europeans will simply not let the US deflect the asteroid. "
Such obstacles are generally expected at the last moment. "There is a loophole in these treaties," Johnson says, referring to the space treaty and the total test ban treaty. They do not prohibit the launch of ballistic missiles that travel through space and may be armed with nuclear weapons. And in light of the need to protect the planet, critics can be patient.
Michelle also notes that unlike any other natural disaster, this is what we can avoid. “The natural risk of this is very low compared to tsunami and the like. But in this case we can do at least something. "
Scientists and engineers from the United States led by astrophysicist Philip Lubin (University of California, Santa Barbara) on the arXiv.org site a preprint titled "Guided Energy Missions for Planetary Defense." The article describes in detail a project, the implementation of which will make it possible to secure the Earth in a situation like the one shown in the movie "Armageddon", that is, to prevent the collision of our planet with an asteroid. Research under the DE-STAR (Directed Energy System for Targeting of Asteroids and exploRation) program is carried out with the support of NASA.
Alternative scenarios for protecting the Earth from an asteroid threat are: (1a) a kinetic impact without the direct use of an explosive (for example, as a result of a collision of two asteroids), (1b) a kinetic impact with an explosion (in particular, the use of nuclear weapons), (2) a change in albedo an asteroid (by painting its surface) or the use of the Yarkovsky effect, (3) deviation of the asteroid from the initial trajectory by an ion beam, (4) bringing a device with a propulsion system (for example, a liquid-fuel rocket) to the asteroid, (5) using a heavy satellite vehicle, which will revolve around the asteroid and gradually correct its trajectory, (6) landing on the surface of a celestial body of a robot, which will begin to destroy it and create a small reactive force that corrects the trajectory of the celestial body and (7) evaporation surface substance asteroid with focusing sun rays.
The earth is constantly colliding with asteroids. Most of them burn up in the atmosphere; small fragments of some reach the planet's surface. A local catastrophe can be caused by asteroids up to a kilometer in size, a global one with a diameter of several kilometers. According to estimates, asteroids of the first type fall to the Earth once every several tens of thousands of years, the second - not more often than once every several tens of millions of years. The greatest danger to the Earth is posed by asteroids belonging to the groups Apollo (about six thousand celestial bodies) and Aton (less than a thousand), crossing the trajectory of the planet from the outer (first) and inner (second) sides of their orbit.
One of the youngest, largest and well-preserved artifacts of the collision of the Earth with an asteroid is the Arizona Crater (USA). It reaches 1.2 kilometers in diameter and 170 meters deep. The crater is surrounded by a rim 45 meters high, and in the center is a hill 240 meters high. The fall of the meteorite released eight thousand times more energy than the explosion of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. The collision took place about 50 thousand years ago. A meteorite with a diameter of about 50 meters crashed into earth surface at a speed of about 13 kilometers per second. If such an object fell today on any city with a multimillion population, a (local) disaster would be inevitable.
Lubin offers a solution to avoid such (local, but not global) disasters. Potentially hazardous objects (POA), which primarily include asteroids, are supposed to be affected by the radiation of an array of lasers. As a result, the trajectory of the flight of the celestial body changes, and the collision does not occur. The mechanism of laser ablation is used - the substance is removed from the body surface by evaporation or sublimation due to heating. Matter flowing away from a celestial body in one direction creates a jet thrust, pushing the asteroid in the opposite direction.
The proposed project is called DE-STARLITE and is a modification of the DE-STAR (Directed Energy System for Targeting of Asteroids and exploRation) program, supported by NASA. Unlike DE-STAR, in detail already "Lenta.ru" in connection with the concept of a mission being developed by Lubin's team to send a small automatic station to Alpha Centauri, DE-STARLITE involves the use of much less powerful lasers that do not operate from the surface of the planet or near-earth trajectory, but in the immediate vicinity of the asteroid (several kilometers or more).
Unlike the ARM program developed by NASA to capture an asteroid 5-10 meters in diameter and deliver it to a circumlunar orbit, the DE-STARLITE project is designed to slightly deviate a celestial body from its original trajectory.
The DE-STARLITE spacecraft will deliver to the asteroid an array of DE-STAR-0 lasers with a power of 100 kilowatts (the weakest of the DE-STAR family). The system being developed by Lubin's team, according to its creators, does not go beyond the technical and design restrictions imposed by NASA on the (Asteroid Redirect Mission). Conceptually, the ship is structured as follows. In front, the central part of the vehicle is formed by a phased antenna array with a diameter of up to 4.5 meters (approximately the same diameter of the ship when folded). On the back and sides are ion thrusters, on the sides are a pair of radiators (top and bottom) and photovoltaic batteries (right and left). The panels and radiators are installed in the folded state in the head fairing of the launch vehicle. Panels deploy from the front of the ship, radiators from the rear.
The published paper discusses solar panels of the American company Orbital ATK. Their analogue (previous generation) was installed on the Phoenix lander. The diameter of the panels is 15 meters, the power is 50 kilowatts each. Coefficient useful action - 35 percent (and, according to Lyubin's estimates, 50 percent in five years). The laser phased array antenna is enough to heat the surface of a celestial body up to 2.7 thousand degrees Celsius and start ablation. In the minimum version (with a grating diameter of one meter), the system allows obtaining a laser spot with a diameter of ten centimeters on an asteroid from a distance of ten kilometers.
Image: Q. Zhang
Increasing the size of the lattice (while maintaining the distance between the station and the asteroid) will require more elements and will give a larger spot. In total, there are 19 elements in the grid with a diameter of two meters, each of which develops a power of up to three kilowatts. Z-shaped heatsink expands into 18 4.8 segments square meters each. Radiator panels will rotate around their axis and be located perpendicular to the solar disk. The modular nature of the DE-STAR-0 system allows the DE-STARLITE to be scaled to the required capacity and size. In particular, a pair of solar panels with a diameter of 30 meters is capable of developing power up to a megawatt. Possible limitations are associated with the high cost of the laser array and launch services.
Atlas V 551 is capable of delivering 18.5 tons (13.2 thousand dollars per kilogram) to low-earth orbit (from 160 to two thousand kilometers from the planet's surface), SLS Block 1 - 70 tons (18.7 thousand dollars per kilogram), Falcon Heavy - 53 tons ($ 1.9 thousand per kilogram) and Delta IV Heavy - 28.8 tons ($ 13 thousand per kilogram). The diameter of the nose cone for missiles is standard (five meters or a little more), except for the super-heavy and most expensive of the listed SLS Block 1, which has it equal to 8.4 meters. In the basic configuration, the dimensions (4.6 x 12.9 meters when folded) and the mass of the DE-STARLITE are suitable for these parameters.
The DE-STARLITE spacecraft is supposed to be launched using a standard launch vehicle operating on liquid fuel, and transported to the OPO by means of ion engines, which will also be involved in maneuvering the station near a celestial body. Scientists and engineers note that the capabilities of the American and European Atlas V 551, Ariane V and Delta IV Heavy rockets, as well as the Falcon Heavy and SLS (Space Launch System) under construction, make it possible to launch the mission today. Lyubin did not consider the Russian heavy rockets Proton-M and Angara-A5 in his work. Researchers have estimated the cost of US launch services to put DE-STARLITE into orbit.
Directional destruction and deviation of the trajectory of an asteroid of the type (99942) Apophis (with a diameter of 325 meters) over a distance of two Earth radii can take 15 years with the power of the DE-STARLITE laser system of one hundred kilowatts (with an efficiency of 35 percent). To achieve the same in five years, 870 kilowatts of power will be required. First discovered in 2003, OET scared scientists: calculations showed a high probability that in 2036 it will collide with the Earth. Modern data have reduced this probability by hundreds of thousands of times.
The method proposed by Lubin works in the case of timely detection of POC, which is still extremely rare (especially when observing by ground means). NASA annually about 1.5 thousand near-earth objects. The agency is currently focusing its efforts on finding smaller asteroids less than 90 meters in diameter. NASA believes it has detected about 90 percent of celestial bodies over 90 meters across. Most new near-Earth objects are detected less than 15 days before they come close to Earth. The collision of a large asteroid with a planet is only a matter of time. Most likely, the next generations of earthlings will have to solve the practical task of getting rid of this threat. However, it is already reasonable to stop playing roulette and start taking some measures to eliminate the asteroid-cometary hazard.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) of the United States announced a test of technology that will help save the Earth from collision with deadly asteroids. A very good idea that will save all of humanity in the future, he told the correspondent Federal agency news scientific observer of the TV channel "Culture" Alexander Galkin.
Need
In a press release issued by NASA experts, it is reported that we are talking about the latest system planetary defense, which is supposed to deflect dangerous space objects from the Earth using a kinetic impact.
"DART will be the first NASA mission to demonstrate so-called kinetic impact technology," said a planetary defense officer at NASA headquarters in Washington. Linley Johnson.
Employees of the American space agency intend to test their system on the small near-Earth asteroid Didim, which will fly by Earth in October 2022 and 2024. Data on the deviation of the satellite's trajectory will be obtained and processed on Earth so that in the future it will become possible to deviate the trajectories of asteroids from our planet
“Here we are talking about the potential killers of all mankind - rather large asteroids that move towards the Earth and can fall on it. We need a planetary defense system in order to avoid repeating the scenario when an asteroid 10 kilometers in diameter fell in the Yucatan Peninsula 65 million years ago. It created the largest impact crater on the Earth's surface and caused catastrophic climatic changes that destroyed the dinosaurs, ”explains Galkin.
The technical side
According to the interlocutor of FAN, the technology proposed by the American Aerospace Agency meets all the necessary safety requirements today.
“The point is that very large asteroids cannot be split open because of their dense and strong internal structure. It is unlikely that there will be a charge of sufficient power, and therefore a kinetic impact technology is proposed that could shift the "space wanderer" literally by a millimeter, changing its trajectory. After all, if you move the asteroid a couple of degrees in millions of kilometers from the Earth, then as a result of the diversion, the difference for our planet will be already 30-40 degrees and the space body will fly by. It makes sense. Well, if we talk about the complete destruction of the cosmic body, then this will be possible only with small fireballs, ”says Galkin.
In addition, the Russian expert recalls that it is still dangerous to use nuclear weapons for these purposes, since modern aerospace technologies do not allow a successful launch of a missile with a nuclear warhead with a 100% probability.
"Send into space atomic bomb scary, because there is no 100% safe launch guarantee. There is still a small percentage of the fact that the rocket will not go into space, explode at the start or during the ascent. And if something like this happens, then we all understand how catastrophic the consequences will be for nature and man. By the way, a similar project was developed in the USSR, but it was decided to abandon it precisely for this reason - it is dangerous for humanity itself, ”the scientific observer concludes.
We remind that earlier specialists of the Russian state corporation Roskosmos said they are working on a project to identify and detect dangerous asteroids and comets that are moving towards the Earth. Scientists' developments will form the basis for future development work, which will take place competitive selection Council of the RAS on space and the state corporation. However, this project is not yet part of the Federal Space Program until 2025.
TsNIIMash said that a system for tracking potential threats in near-earth space will track existing spacecraft and space debris. It will also warn of possible collisions in orbit. The same system will monitor asteroids and comets.