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Russians Think US Is Weaponizing Asteroids
This summer, honorary member of the Tsiolkovsky Cosmonautics Academy, CEO of the Planetary Protection Center non-profit partnership Anatoly Zaitsev told TASS:
There are two methods to use asteroids as weapons, he pointed out.
The first method is to conceal information on a dangerous celestial body and the second option is to deliberately alter the asteroid flight path to make it crash onto Russian territory, the expert explained.
"The first option is potentially plausible, even if hardly probable because we detect less than 0.1% of about 2,500 Earth-approaching asteroids annually discovered in the world. The second scenario is real because over 30 years the United States and other countries have organized 12 expeditions to 14 asteroids and six comets, in which the methods and means of controlling their flight paths were tested," he said.
As far as I know, the first suggestion of using a celestial body as a weapon came in Buck Rogers, 2430 A.D., a comic from 1929-1931, created by Philip Nowlan and D. Calkins.
"It is necessary to point out that an opportunity emerges to test kinetic, laser and even asteroid weapons under the guise of creating tools of protection from dangerous celestial bodies. These weapons can, for example, become a component of the space forces set up by the United States with the aim of its dominance in outer space," the expert said on the occasion of International Asteroid Day annually celebrated on June 30.
BY PUSHING AGAINST THE
LITTLE MARTIAN MOON WITH OUR
ROCKET SHIP, WE HAD LESSENED
THE CENTRIFUGAL SPEED THAT
HELD IT BALANCED IN THE SKY.
IT WAS FALLING AS IT CIRCLED
THE RED PLANET. FASTER AND
FASTER IT SPIRALLED DOWN,
UNTIL AT LAST BOB BYRON
SNAPPED OUT AN ORDER.
(Buck Rogers: the rocket ship gets in position)
(Buck Rogers: the rocket ship pushes a moon)
(Buck Rogers: the moon spirals in)
(The moon becomes incandescent as it hits Mars' atmosphere)
(Then, with a crash that shook the entire planet, it struck!)
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 11/29/2023)
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Russians Think US Is Weaponizing Asteroids
'BY PUSHING AGAINST THE
LITTLE MARTIAN MOON WITH OUR
ROCKET SHIP, WE HAD LESSENED
THE CENTRIFUGAL SPEED THAT
HELD IT BALANCED IN THE SKY.' - Philip Nowlan and D. Calkins, 1930.
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