Russia's Bold Ideas
This has been quite a week for weird Russian space news. The highlights of three stories are below. Although I doubt these proposals will be realized, it's interesting to consider what would happen if they did. Moving Apophis? Apophis is a near Earth asteroid that caused a stir a few years ago as initial predictions indicated small but difficult-to-ignore probabilities that it would strike the Earth or Moon on April 13, 2029 or April 13, 2036. Continued studies by NASA's Near Earth Object Program have ruled out any significant chance of an impact. Thus, today's announcement by Anatoly Permino, the head of the Russian Federal Space Agency ( ROSCOSMOS ), came as a surprise. In an interview today on the Voice of Russia radio , he said the agency is considering sending a spacecraft to Apophis to move it in order to save the world. He didn't give many details on the plan other than there would be “no nuclear explosions” and that everything would be done “on the b