Meteorite-hit Russia proposes common space defense system

[figatova]

Meteorite-hit Russia proposes common space defense system

MOSCOW, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin Saturday proposed establishing a common defense system to counter space threats, one day after a meteorite explosion injured some 1,200 people in the Chelyabinsk region in Russia's Urals region.

"Humankind must create a system to identify and neutralize objects that pose a danger to the Earth," the official wrote on his Twitter account.

Rogozin said he would present Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev Monday with proposals on how to tackle similar incidents in the future.

Local experts also advocated for the building of a common space threat monitoring and warning system.

Vitaly Davydov, deputy head of Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos, told local media that strategic planetary defense should be a "priority" for Russia. He called for a special federal program on neutralizing space threats.

The damage caused by the meteorite strike in the Urals region is estimated to exceed 1 billion rubles (about 30 million U.S. dollars), Governor Mikhail Yurevich told reporters, adding the number may increase.

According to NASA data, the diameter of "space comer" was about 15 meters and it came across the atmosphere at a speed of 64,000 km per hour. The energy shockwave was equal to about 300 kilotons of TNT.

Last October, Russian rocket and space corporation Energia vowed to build a space rocket capable of destroying asteroids threatening the Earth.

The largest-ever meteorite impact with the Earth in written history occurred in 1908 in Russia's Siberia over Tunguska River, when a forest area was flattened by a slightly smaller asteroid, which exploded about five miles above ground.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/wo..._124351175.htm

[whatduh]

It's a black flag operation I tell ya

Ooo Nice new missles

[smeblee]

Yep heaps of nets..

[theblue8]

We should send millions of dwarfs holding mirrors into space to deflect the sun's rays in the direction of the inbound asteroid and alter its trajectory just enough to pass over us.

[moefugger]

Gotta know it is comming long before it hits.
They did not know this one was comming in.

[figatova]

ESA Selects Target For AIDA Asteroid Deflection Project

In the wake of the recent meteor explosion above Russia, the European Space Agency (ESA) has announced the selection of a target for their proposed Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA).

The AIDA mission, which is a joint project headed up by European and American astronomers, will attempt to intercept asteroid Didymos, which the ESA says is a “binary,” featuring two asteroids – one approximately 800 meters across, one approximately 150 meters across – orbiting around each other.

The plan is for the two small spacecraft to intercept Didymos when it passes within 11 million kilometers of Earth in 2022, officials from the agency revealed in a statement Friday.

One probe — the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) – will smash into the smaller asteroid at speeds of roughly 6.25 kilometers per second while the other – the Asteroid Impact Monitor (AIM) – records the results.

“One effect would be a change in the orbital ballet of the two objects. AIDA is not intended to show how we could deflect an asteroid that threatens Earth but it would be a first step,” ESA officials said, adding that they had been discussing possible targets with their international colleagues before settling on Didymos sometime last week.

“Didymos poses no risk to our planet, but will come close enough to be observable by 1–2 m-diameter telescopes on Earth before and after the strike. AIM’s close-up view would provide ‘ground truth’ and observe the impact dynamics as well as the resulting crater, allowing ground-based observations and models to be evaluated,” they added. “Earlier this month, ESA issued a call for scientists to propose experiments that could be carried on the mission or performed on the ground to increase its return.”

ESA studies manager Andrés Gálvez said that the AIDA project is more than just an asteroid mission, but also a research platform to be utilized by a variety of scientists involved on the mission.

Likewise, Andy Cheng, the AIDA lead at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, which operates the DART module for the project – said that he believed that the mission had value in several different areas, including applied science and the utilization of asteroid resources.

“Researchers have until 15 March to express their interest,” the ESA said. “The experiment ideas can be anything that deals with hypervelocity impacts, planetary science, planetary defense, human exploration or innovation in spacecraft operations.”

http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/1...ission-022313/

AIDA (spacecraft)

The Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission is a proposed space probe under development by the European Space Agency, which would study the effects of crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid. The mission is intended to test whether a spacecraft could successfully deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. The project was formed by joining two separate studies, called 'DART' (an asteroid impact probe) and 'AIM' (an asteroid orbiter).

The target is 65803 Didymos, a binary system in which one asteroid is orbited by a smaller one. In the AIDA mission, the DART spacecraft would impact the smaller of the asteroids and AIM would study the effect on its orbit around the larger asteroid, as well as studying the geology of the two asteroids. Both spacecraft would be able to operate independently, so that if one failed, the other could still achieve science goals.

The mission is still in the planning stages and no launch date has been proposed.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDA_%28spacecraft%29

asteroid-deflection-4.pngAIDA_mission_concept_medium.gifESADonQuijote.png

Official website:

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Te...ent_AIDA_study

[figatova]

ESA assesses Russian meteor explosion

The European Space Agency (ESA) is assessing information about the Chelyabinsk meteor that exploded last week over Russia in the hope of improving the space agency’s asteroid-hunting program. Calculations by Peter Brown at Canada's University of Western Ontario based on the analysis of extremely low-frequency sound waves detected by a global network, was combined with videos, satellite images and eyewitness accounts to allow ESA to construct a more complete and accurate account of the event.

On February 15, a large fireball was reported over Chelyabinsk, Russia flying northeast to southwest at an angle of 20 degrees above the horizontal at a speed of about 18 km/s (64,800 km/h, 40,000 mph). Seen by thousands of eyewitnesses and recorded on car dashboard cameras, the 17-meter (56-ft) meteor with an estimated mass of between 7,000 and 10,000 tonnes exploded at 03:20:26 GMT over 55° 10' N, 61° 25' E at an altitude of 15 to 20 kilometers (9.3 to 12.4 miles) with a force of 500 kilotons – the equivalent of 30 Hiroshima atomic bombs.

In an interview with Nicolas Bobrinsky, Detlef Koschny – who is responsible for ESA’s Space Situational Awareness (SSA) program’s Near-Earth Object operations – outlined some of the findings and their importance in detecting similar meteors before they hit.

One point that was easy to determine was that the Chelyabinsk meteor is completely unrelated to asteroid 2012 DA14, which passed remarkably close to Earth the same day. Despite the timing, the orbits of the two objects don’t match and therefore the events of Friday were merely coincidental.

In regard to the damage caused by the Chelyabinsk meteor sonic boom and explosion, the meteor traveled on a shallow trajectory and the explosion sent out a cylindrical shock wave directly over the town of Chelyabinsk. This caused an over-pressure of up to 20 times normal atmospheric pressure, which damaged walls and blew in windows.

No reports were made of anyone harmed by meteorite fragments (that is, bits of a meteor that has survived the trip through the atmosphere), though many were caused by flying glass. Some meteorite pieces have claimed to have been found in Lake Chebarkul along the meteor’s flight path, but the Russian authorities have yet to confirm this.

ESA’s main concern is with the 600,000 known asteroids in our Solar System and particularly the 9,000 that pass close to the Earth. The agency is working with NASA and European national space agencies to develop an early warning system to detect similar meteors in the future.

Koschny described a 2008 meteor that was detected by accident 20 hours before it hit in the Sudan. If the Chelyabinsk meteor had enjoyed a similar heads up, people in the region would have had sufficient warning to prepare for the blast and stay clear of windows or weakened structures.

As part of its effort to provide such a warning, ESA’s SSA program is working to carry out an extensive sky survey using up to six automated 1-meter (39.4-in) telescopes to photograph the entire sky. By comparing images taken at various points and times, it would be possible to detect any new objects orbiting the Sun by their shifting in the images. From these shifts, the trajectory of the objects can be calculated and the threat, if any, they pose to Earth can be assessed. According to ESA, such a survey – along with space-based observations – would be able to detect an object the size of the Chelyabinsk meteor several days before impact.

esa-russian-meteor-5.jpg

http://www.gizmag.com/esa-russian-meteor/26310/

[tarnoch]

[Dat1111]

Humankind must create a system to identify and neutralize objects that pose a danger to the Earth," the official wrote on his Twitter account

So can we now admit theres a problem thats affecting us all.

It involves sharia, ak47s, and human blow up dolls

[figatova]

Originally Posted by Dat1111

Humankind must create a system to identify and neutralize objects that pose a danger to the Earth," the official wrote on his Twitter account

So can we now admit theres a problem thats affecting us all.

It involves sharia, ak47s, and human blow up dolls

What?! no mention of the nazis?! you going soft Dat?