The Russian Emergencies Ministry, together with Russian and American scientists, is going to consider the possibility of creating a system that will protect the population and socially significant infrastructure from threats from outer space. The fall to the Earth of the Chelyabinsk meteorite in February 2013 demonstrated that space threats are quite real, and in their impact, no less destructive than natural disasters or large forest fires. In 2014, EMERCOM of Russia expects to start work on the creation of a global network of crisis centers. Work in this direction will become one of the most important priorities in the activities of the ministry. The Ministry of Emergency Situations has already developed a draft of the corresponding "road map", which must be implemented in the next 5 years.
It is planned to implement this project together with partners within the SCO, APEC, ICDO (International Civil Defense Organization), the EU, as well as other international structures and the G8 countries. According to the head of the EMERCOM of Russia Vladimir Puchkov, within the framework of international cooperation, it is planned to develop solutions to create an effective mechanism for protecting the population from asteroid-meteorite danger, which will include the detection of dangerous celestial bodies, warning the population about space hazards, as well as work to eliminate the consequences the fall of celestial bodies to the Earth.
There was also information that the Russian Emergencies Ministry is going to involve the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russian Academy of Sciences) and leading Russian universities in the development of a protection system against asteroid-cometary threats, Vladimir Puchkov, the head of the country's Emergencies Ministry, told reporters on January 28. On Tuesday, Vladimir Puchkov, his colleague Craig Fugate, head of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as well as representatives of the scientific community, as part of the teleconference, discussed the possibilities of international cooperation to protect the population from space threats.
“Involvement of specialized specialists from the Center for Planetary Defense, Russian higher educational institutions of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, the Higher School of Economics and other leading educational and scientific organizations of the Russian Academy of Sciences will make our dialogue more effective and productive. We are currently working on identifying specific steps for conducting scientific research, for developing pilot zones to protect the population from space threats,”said Vladimir Puchkov.
The head of the Russian Emergencies Ministry emphasized that space objects approaching our planet can pose a very serious danger to infrastructure and the population, while the modern development of technologies does not yet fully resolve this problem. Vladimir Puchkov said that within the framework of cooperation, options for solutions will be worked out to develop an effective mechanism for protecting against meteorite-asteroid hazards. During the Russia-USA television bridge, where the issues of protecting the Earth from the threat from space were discussed, the head of the Emergencies Ministry said that in 2014 Russia will take concrete practical steps to carry out the necessary scientific research. It is also planned to organize experimental pilot zones for the protection of the population and social infrastructure facilities. Funds for these purposes will be allocated from the budget of the Russian Federation.
As recent practice shows, space objects approaching our planet can pose a serious threat, the Russian minister noted, recalling that in 2013, the city itself, as well as more than 60 other settlements, suffered from the fall of the Chelyabinsk meteorite. At the same time, Vladimir Puchkov believes that the efforts of only one state will not be able to solve this problem. “The issue of protection from space threats should become a priority for the joint Russian-American working group on emergency prevention. Currently, there is a need to build a reliable international system to protect the earth's infrastructure and the planet's population from the threat from outer space,”the minister said.
His American colleague Craig Fugate also agrees with the Russian chief Emergencies Ministry, who believes that the development of an effective mechanism for countering the meteorite-asteroid hazard is possible only by joint efforts of many countries. The head of the US Emergency Management Agency stressed that this threat is global in nature. At the same time, he stressed that for the states, the Russian experience in eliminating the consequences of the fall of the Chelyabinsk meteorite is very important and valuable. According to Craig Fugate, the United States is interested in early detection of threats from space and warning the population about them. Specialists from the Emergencies Ministry, the Russian Academy of Sciences, FEMA and the US Department of State and National Aeronautics and Space Administration took part in the work of this teleconference.
Evgeny Parfenov, a leading engineer of the Department of Astronomy and Celestial Mechanics of the Research Institute of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics of TSU - Tomsk State University, expressed his opinion on this matter. According to him, when creating a system for protecting the Earth from asteroid-cometary threats, it is necessary to create a system for round-the-clock monitoring of small celestial bodies. At present, the absence of such a system does not allow us to fully and promptly identify space threats, such as the fall of a meteorite near Chelyabinsk.
According to Evgeny Parfenov, in general, the system for detecting large space objects that pose a danger to the Earth has been working for a long time, all objects that could lead to a global catastrophe have long been discovered and are being actively studied by scientists. There remains a "trifle" - celestial bodies ranging in size from several meters to tens of meters, which may well cause a local catastrophe. There are many more such objects in space than large space objects, they are much more difficult to detect. In the case of Chelyabinsk, astronomers "missed" the celestial matter with a diameter of about 15 meters. It is objects of this size that not all are known, they are considered small and it is very difficult to detect them in space, so a lot of work will have to be done in this area, the Tomsk scientist noted.
According to Parfenov, in the event of the prompt detection of a potentially dangerous space object, it would be possible to launch an engine on it, which could change the orbit of a celestial body, or undermine it. But today there are very few tools that could effectively find small space objects. They could potentially be detected by the American Hubble Space Telescope or the largest telescopes installed in the Hawaiian Islands. “However, with all the will, the telescopes located in Hawaii are not able to see those objects that will be in the sky of the eastern hemisphere in half a day. That is why humanity needs to have a global warning system for dangerous celestial objects, preferably deployed in space. To begin with, a pair of vehicles located on opposite sides of the planet and looking at their half of the sky would be enough. At the same time, the astronomer noted that the creation of such a system is a very expensive project.
