MOSCOW. Sept 13 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia is developing a program to counter the threat of a comet or an asteroid hitting Earth, head of the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) Anatoly Perminov said.
"A program providing for security against comets and asteroids is being developed in Russia. This is a special target program of the Astronomy Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences and research as part of this program has been being carried out for about three years," Perminov said in an interview with the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper on Thursday.
The development of the program will take about three years, he said.
The program takes various technical ways to counter the asteroid threat into consideration. "Even in the Soviet period, it was proposed to hit an asteroid with a nuclear bomb. This method is not excluded," but other options exist, too, he said.
He was asked if piloted flights to Mars are being developed by Russia. "Such research has been conducted since the times of Sergei Korolyov," he said.
"RKK Energy has a spaceship project [for a flight to Mars]. However, it is hard to implement it in this situation, because it includes many technical problems," he said.
The ship's failings currently include an absence of protection against radiation and low-power engines, he said.