Russian scientists have repurposed the country’s surplus of intercontinental ballistic missiles for a greater threat: asteroids and falling meteorites from space.
According to Tech Times, a Russian news report agency has revealed that a team of researchers are embarking on a project to convert ICBMs into Earth-defending projectiles capable of destroying any near-earth objects (NEOs) that might threaten the immediate safety of the planet.
Meteoroids, giant space rocks from asteroids orbitting the sun, are a primary target for the ICBMs. Portions of asteroids occosionally break off and are inadvertently hurled toward Earth. Some of these space rocks make it through the atmosphere — and that’s when problems can arise.
One of the most recent examples of a meteoroid making it through the atmosphere and down to Earth was when a space rock impacted the Russian city of Chelyabinsk on Feb. 13, 2015. The space rock exploded 18 miles above the surface of the planet and the resulting shock injured around 1,500 people.
An asteroid called 99942 Apophis is believed by researchers to have the potential to pass “dangerously close” to the planet by 2036. NASA has ruled out the possibility of this happening, but the Russians aren’t too sure.
Because of this, they are choosing to invest in their ICBM conversion plan.
The conversion process requires the team to change the way the missiles work. Typically, missiles are to be fueled ten days before launch — attacks such as the ones that the ICBMs would be used for were to be planned out far in advance.
In order to destroy or avert meteoroids, the fueling process has to be changed. The Russian government is working in tandem with the scientists behind the project in order to reconfigure and repurpose the missiles.