Russia may build rocket to destroy Earth-threatening asteroids

In Russia ,as it has been observed that there are several asteroids which can be threatening to the earth including Apophis whose orbit has crossed the orbit of Earth and it may hit the Earth in next several decades as reported by Vitaly Lopota to the state news paper Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

So Russia is planning to develop such a space rocket which is capable of destroying such asteroids, chief of rocket and Space Corporation Energia said this Friday.

To overcome this situation there are two plans that either to change the orbit of this Apophis' size by using a rocket of weight about 70-ton which can pull this planet out of Earth’s orbit or to destroy this asteroid with a thermonuclear blast. After calculations it has been concluded that this Apophis will approach to earth with a distance of less than the one tenth of moon distance from Earth in 2029,and the impact of this collision between Apophis and earth would be approximately equal to1,700-Megaton explosion.

According to Lopota, existing Russian rocket with installed engine of RD-171 could be redesigned to produce a rocket capable of destroying such an asteroid and which can be build in next 3 to five years.