MOSCOW. Feb 18 (Interfax) - Russia needs an array of telescopes and a federal target program to monitor space threats, forecast meteorite activity and tresearch meteorites, Russian Academy of Sciences Astronomy Institute department head Lidia Rykhlova told a Monday press conference in Moscow.
"The ground-based telescopes should be linked to space-based infrastructure. The mission may be accomplished with 58 billion rubles allotted within a decade. Roscosmos has approved the program and put it on (Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry) Rogozin's table," she said.
Russia has telescopes with 60-centimeter lenses, but they have to be modernized and equipped with computer data processing systems. It is also necessary to build two or three telescopes with two-meter lenses on Russian territory, she said.
An array of telescopes with 40-centimeter lenses and an analytical center are required, as well, Rykhlova said.
The Chelyabinsk bolide exploded 20 kilometers above the ground; the damage done by the 500-kiloton explosion "would have been rather substantial" if it had occurred on land, she stressed.
Russia has nine telescopes with 40-centimeter lenses, Moscow State University Professor, Space Monitoring Laboratory Head Vladimir Lipunov said.
He said that the telescopes must be fully automatic.
It is much more realistic to build a space threat monitoring system than to shoot down meteorites with air defense missiles, Lipunov said. If a meteorite is traced on time, people may be warned to take shelter or at least reinforce their windows, he said.
Russian Academy of Sciences Space Research Institute leading scientist Alexander Zakharov said that the probability of such events as the Chelyabinsk meteorite "is much smaller than an icicle falling from a house roof."
But it is quite possible to put an impact on a meteorite for changing its orbit or trajectory, he said.