With the help of such weapons, the United States will be able to change the trajectory of the asteroid so that it falls on the territory of the Russian Federation, said Anatoly Zaitsev, honorary member of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics named after K. E. Tsiolkovsky
MOSCOW, June 30. /tass/. The United States and other countries can develop and test asteroid weapons under the guise of creating planetary defense systems. This opinion was expressed by the honorary member of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics named after K. E. Tsiolkovsky, General Director of the non-profit partnership "Center for Planetary Protection" Anatoly Zaitsev.
"It should be noted that under the guise of creating means of protection from dangerous celestial bodies, it becomes possible to work out kinetic, laser and even asteroid weapons. It can become, for example, a component of the space forces created in the United States with the aim of dominating space," he said in an interview with TASS for the International Asteroid Day, celebrated annually on June 30.
According to him, asteroids can be used as weapons in two ways. In the first - to hide information about a threatening celestial body, and in the second - to deliberately change the trajectory of the asteroid to ensure its fall on the territory of Russia. "The first option, although unlikely, is potentially possible, since we detect less than 0.1% of the approximately 2,500 near-Earth asteroids discovered annually in the world. And the second option is real, because over 30 years, the United States and other countries have organized 12 expeditions to 14 asteroids and 6 comets, during which methods and tools for controlling their trajectories were also tested," the expert explained.
In Russia, in his opinion, work in the field of planetary protection is carried out "on an initiative basis and without general coordination." Zaitsev believes that the creation of a system of protection against the asteroid-comet threat will help Russia protect itself and the entire planet from dangerous celestial bodies, develop scientific, technical and defense potential, attract international investment, and strengthen cooperation and trust between peoples.
Russia is currently developing near-Earth space monitoring systems. So, on April 12, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the creation of a federal project of an automated warning system for dangerous situations in near-Earth space. It will be called the "Milky Way" and will include 65 ground-based telescopes, as well as a space segment. As Roscosmos Executive Director for Advanced Programs and Science Alexander Bloshenko reported earlier in an interview with TASS, the space segment of the system will include a grouping of specialized satellites for monitoring near-Earth space. The launch of the first of them is scheduled for 2027.
