Russia Wants to Turn Old Missiles Into an Asteroid Defense System

[zorgon]

Russia Wants to Turn Old Missiles Into an Asteroid Defense System

One of the world's deadliest missiles could become a planetary life-saver


(ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO/POOL/epa/Corbis)

Duuring the Cold War, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs, for short) were some of the most feared weapons of the nuclear age. First deployed by the Soviet Union in 1958, ICBMs were designed as deterrents and weapons of last resort with the capability to launch nuclear warheads halfway around the world. Now, Russia wants to aim these missiles at a new target: giant asteroids that could be on a collision course with Earth.

Scientists have proposed all manner of solutions for protecting the Earth from errant asteroids, from nudging them off course with solar winds to vaporizing them with nukes. This plan to use repurposed ICBMs would fall into the latter category, the Kakeyev Rocket Design Bureau's lead researcher Sabit Saitgarayev tells the state-owned Russian news agency, TASS.

Astronomers can detect large asteroids from a distance, but it is much harder to pick out asteroids smaller than 150 feet in diameter more than a few hours before impact. The Chelyabinsk meteor, which exploded above central Russia in February 2013, was only about 50 feet in diameter but still damaged thousands of buildings and injured about 1,500 people. According to Saitgarayev, the ICBM's ability to be launched with little lead time makes the missile type a strong candidate for an asteroid defense system, Eric Limer reports for Popular Mechanics.

"Most rockets work on boiling fuel. Their fueling begins 10 days before the launch and, therefore, they are unfit for destroying meteorites similar to the Chelyabinsk meteorite in diameter, which are detected several hours before coming close to the Earth," Saitgarayev tells TASS. "For this purpose, intercontinental ballistic missiles can be used, which requires their upgrade.

Instead of relying on liquid fuel, ICBMs use solid fuel, which means they can be stored at the ready until the moment they are launched. In theory, it seems like a good idea: repurposed ICBMs could be fired shortly after a small asteroid is detected and would ideally destroy it with a nuclear blast before the space rock enters the atmosphere and causes any harm.

However, there are some pretty big dangers to this tactic, especially if the asteroid isn't completely vaporized. If the initial blast doesn't turn the target asteroid into dust, it could just turn one big rock into lots of little rocks—a new problem that would be much harder to solve with a missile, Tyler Rogoway writes for Jalopnik.

That's not the only issue facing the retrofitting project. While Saitgarayev says the design process is already in the works, he says that upgrading the ICBMs for asteroid defense could cost millions of dollars, and it's unclear whether those funds are even available, TASS reports. Still, Saitgarayev says that if the plan goes forward, he hopes to have the missiles ready for testing by 2036, when the large asteroid Apophis is scheduled to pass dangerously close to Earth.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/russia-wants-turn-old-missiles-asteroid-defense-system-180958138/?utm_source=facebook.com&no-ist

[COSMO]

That might be a great idea.  Or not.  Not sure about that one.  It could backfire. 



Cosmo

[spacemaverick]

Just saw this on Motley Fool and a few other places on the Internet.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/28/why-russia-pointing-nuclear-missiles-at-asteroids.aspx

Taken from the article:

"Great minds shoot alike
And Russia isn't alone. Earlier this year, NASA set up a Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) to -- you guessed it -- defend the planet from asteroids. In furtherance of that goal, PDCO has been tasked with tracking down 90% of all NEO asteroids by 2020.

Such an ambitious goal will cost money. Indeed, according to website DigitalTrends.com, "millions ... in federal money is set to pour into detection efforts" over the coming years. National Defense magazine puts the number at at least $50 million annually, citing the recently passed fiscal year 2016 budget."

Also from the article:

"Who will get the loot?
ND identifies several likely suspects who could win these funds, including big defense contractors Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) and Raytheon (NYSE:RTN). Lockheed is the company in charge of building NASA's Space Fence, designed to keep track of man-made junk orbiting Earth. Lockheed and Raytheon both bid on the contract in 2013 -- but only Lockheed won it. Similarly, Lockheed Martin and Ball Aerospace (NYSE:BLL) helped to build NASA's NEOWISE infrared telescope,specifically designed to detect and track NEOs."

Go to the link above for full article.  I'm now waiting to see if some crazy will find a way to find a way to make an asteroid into a guided weapon...or is the idea of a guided asteroid science fiction?

ND calls $50 million "a drop in the bucket" compared to what it will ultimately cost to categorize all NEO threats, much less develop a means of defeating them. To cite just one example of contracts moving in that direction, in 2022, NASA aims to send a spaceship to asteroid 65803 Didymous in an ambitious experiment to try to push the object into a new orbit far from Earth's own.

Planetary defense is a hot new market (but is it just for asteroids?)

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2016/February/pages/PlanetaryDefenseANewHotMarket.aspx

[spacemaverick]

Russia tweaking their ICBM's

[zorgon]

Well there is concern...

1) The small asteroid that exploded over Russia... no one saw it coming and even after it hit NASA made an error in calculating it's size

2) Recently NASA missed another one of similar size Seems they cannot see them when they come from the direction of the sun

3) Military satellites back in 2008 removed access to scientists for asteroid data
Military Hush-Up: Incoming Space Rocks Now Classified

4) Orbit of Apophis for the 2029 encounter. NASA says: It will miss but be close enough to knock out satellites... but the WHITE area is the 'margin of error" in the orbit. You will also see that once it passes earth it wil change orbit... so considering the 'margin of error' and the orbit change how can they say 100% it won't hit in 2036?  If they don't have the exact path until after it comes, they cannot possibly predict 2036