"It may hit Earth ... but don't worry, we've got a plan"RAYMOND HAINEY, Reporting
The call for action to protect the world from Apophis - named after the Egyptian god of destruction - came from a coalition of astronauts, engineers and scientists with close links to US space agency NASA.
Scientists have estimated the asteroid has a one-in-45,000 chance of striking Earth on 13 April, 2036. Travelling at 28,000mph it could release 80,000 times the energy of the Hiroshima bomb.
The group believes the United Nations should assume responsibility for a space mission - using a vessel called a "gravity tractor" - to knock Apophis off course.
Experts says that the recent approval of a NASA mandate to upgrade its tracking of near-Earth asteroids is expected to uncover hundreds, if not thousands of threatening space rocks in the near future.
Rusty Schweickart, a former astronaut who orbited the moon in the 1969 Apollo 9 mission, said: "It's not just Apophis we're looking at. Every country is at risk and we need a set of general principles to deal with this issue."
Mr Schweickart, a member of the Association of Space Explorers, is planning to present an update to the UN Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space this week on plans to develop a global response to an asteroid threat.
Scientists believe that a gravity tractor - a spaceship which flies alongside the asteroid - is the best way to neutralise the threat of Apophis.
A gravity tractor spaceship exerts a slight pull on the targeted mass, slowly pulling it off course and potentially rendering it harmless to life on Earth.
Interesting, but what it take to use a Gravity Tractor as a poor man's rail gun. What type of scenario could one envision using an "asteroid gun?"
Blackmail and Extortion....
The Hidden Invaders? Terrorists? Independent Revolutionaries?
A First Strike Weapon? Why not make it two gravity tractors modulated to play off each other's energy frequencies. One using hte other to account for trajectory and velocity.
- JnW
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