Mystery object to whizz by earth on Wednesday

 
Scientist don't know what it is, an asteroid, space junk?  Something is going to pass within 80,000 miles of earth and they don't know what it is?  Seems strange.  It's 33-50 feet wide and it's 80,000 miles out (at it's closest), doesn't seem like a good candidate to be space junk.... at least not space junk from Earth (alien space junk maybe?).  If we assume it's an asteroid that would explain it's mysterious origin but it's a bit disturbing that something that big remained unknown until now and it still can't be identified.  At least they're saying that if it is an asteroid it's tiny, too small to cause much damage even if it does hit.  I assume most of it would burn up in the atmosphere before it reached the earth.  Hmm, maybe it's a Borg scout ship, or maybe a miniature Deathstar?

Russia planning to save the world from giant asteroid.

Russia is considering a plan to build a spacecraft to deflect the asteroid Apophis from a possible collision with the Earth which could occur as early as 2029.  Hey, that sounds like a great and noble ideal doesn't it?  So why am I so bothered by it?

First of all, there's really almost no chance that Apophis is actually going to hit the Earth.  When it was originally found in 2004 scientist thought there was a 1-37 chance it might hit our little blue marble but now they say it's not likely to come within 18,000 miles of us.  Seems like it would be pretty harmless to practice on the asteroid then just in case we find one that is going to hit the Earth... unless something goes wrong.  What happens if they change the direction of the asteroid incorrectly and the chances of it hitting us goes back to 1-37?

And then there's this from Anatoly Perminov, the guy in charge of planning the mission.  He doesn't even remember when Apophis might hit but he's all onboard with the idea of spending hundreds of millions of dollars to save lives that aren't really in danger.

...snip
"Without mentioning NASA's conclusions, Perminov said that he heard from a scientist that Apophis is getting closer and may hit the planet. "I don't remember exactly, but it seems to me it could hit the Earth by 2032," Perminov said."

"People's lives are at stake. We should pay several hundred million dollars and build a system that would allow us to prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people," Perminov said."
...snip

Got that?  The head of the agency that might plan the mission heard from a scientist, doesn't really remember what he heard but he's still thinking about spending hundreds of millions of dollars anyway on a mission that's not going to save lives (according to NASA) and could go wrong and actually cause the catastrophe that it's designed to prevent (that isn't going to happen to begin with).  Whew, I feel safe now!

The mission wouldn't be without merit however.  The knowledge gained from such an adventure may very well prove beneficial in the future and given the margin of error even if things go wrong we're still not likely to be in danger.  It could well turn out that the various space agencies undertake the mission as a test and while they learn how to safely deflect an asteroid also learn how to work together even closer than they have on the International Space Station.  Nothing wrong with that.

It all seems like posturing though.  Why announce a project like this with so few facts and planning if it may not even happen?  Perhaps to gain a bit of cachet on the international scene?  Maybe to attract more high paying space tourists to the Russian space program?  I'm all for keeping giant rocks from hitting the Earth, I just hope the people planning it know what they're doing.

And Anatoly, dude, lose the hairpiece.  How can we trust a guy with such bad judgment in rugs?