Shengping Gong, Junfeng Li, and Xiangyuan Zeng of Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, have published an article in Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics (RAA), proposing to place a small spacecraft with a solar sail into a retrograde orbit to prevent an asteroid from colliding with the Earth in 2036.

Near Earth Asteroids have a possibility of impacting with the Earth and always have a thread on the Earth.

The asteroid Apophis – which is 270 meters in diameter – will approach Earth at a distance of 37,000 to 38,000 km in 2029. In 2036, Apophis may come back and collide with Earth on April 13, 2036.

Using a solar sail in a H-reversal trajectory (retrograde orbit), the team proposes a way of changing the trajectory of the asteroid to avoid the impaction.

The impact velocity depends on two important parameters: the minimum solar distance along the trajectory and lightness number. A larger lightness number and a smaller solar distance lead to a higher impact velocity.

The results show that a 10 kg solar sail with a lead-time of one year will give the spacecraft an impact velocity of 90 km per second which – if done well enough in advance – can move Apophis out of a 600-m keyhole area in 2029 to prevent its return to Earth in 2036.

However, the spacecraft could go wildly off course, with variations in solar wind patterns, according to Technologyreview.com.

The asteroid, discovered in 2004, is considered the largest threat to our planet, although NASA scientists say the 2036 strike is unlikely, and the asteroid would likely disintegrate into smaller parts and make smaller collisions with Earth.

Story and source: Asian Scientist

If you're tired of the Mediterranean and don't want to head to Disney again, perhaps it's time for a summer holiday in space? It would certainly be one way to avoid the crowds.

As the space tourism battle heats up, Russia has unveiled plans for its first floating hotel, 217 miles above earth, and it is something of a boutique offering.

Hosting just seven guests in a four cabins, the accommodation will boast huge windows with views back to earth and tasty microwave meals will be served instead of the freeze-dried tubes of nourishment so often used by astronauts.

Just getting there will be an adventure in itself – it will take two days aboard a Soyuz rocket – and it won’t exactly be a budget holiday: A five-day stay will cost you £100,000, on top of £500,000 for your journey.

The hotel, or the Commercial Space Station to give it its proper name, is due to open by 2016 and, according to those behind it, will be ‘far more comfortable’ than the International Space Station used by astronauts and cosmonauts.

In the weightlessness of space, visitors can choose to have beds that are either vertical or horizontal, while showers will be sealed affairs to stop water going where it shouldn’t (those aboard the International Space Station must make do with sponge baths until they return home).

Read more: Russia unveils the design for its first space hotel

The U.S. government has sued a former NASA astronaut to recover a camera used to explore the moon's surface during the 1971 Apollo 14 mission after seeing it slated for sale in a New York auction.

The lawsuit, filed in Miami federal court on Wednesday, accuses Edgar Mitchell of illegally possessing the camera and attempting to sell it for profit.

In March, NASA learned that the British auction house Bonhams was planning to sell the camera at an upcoming Space History Sale, according to the suit.

The item was labeled "Movie Camera from the Lunar Surface" and billed as one of two cameras from the Apollo 14's lunar module Antares. The lot description said the item came "directly from the collection" of pilot Edgar Mitchell and had a pre-sale estimate of $60,000 to $80,000, the suit said.

Mitchell was a lunar module pilot on Apollo 14, which launched its nine-day mission in 1971 under the command of Alan Shepard. The sixth person to walk on the moon, Mitchell is now retired and runs a website selling his autographed picture.

He has made headlines in the past for his stated belief in the existence of extraterrestrial life.

Read more: Government sues Apollo 14 astronaut over lunar camera

The US has recovered a scattering of moon dust stolen from Nasa after the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, just as it was about to be sold at auction.

The dust was smuggled out of Nasa by a staff photographer who gathered it from a camera the astronauts used on the lunar surface, officials said.

Nasa investigators discovered the dust - affixed to a scrap of tape - at a St Louis auction house this month.

It is illegal in the US to possess moon rocks or moon dust.

"It wasn't much to look at, but I will never be that close to the moon again," US attorney for eastern Missouri Richard Callahan said in a statement.

In the darkroom
According to the auction material distributed by the US justice department, Nasa photographer Terry Slezak was in 1969 tasked with processing film from a camera used by Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong.

As he opened one of the film magazines, he found his hands covered in moon dust - apparently the camera had been dropped to the lunar surface.

That incident made Mr Slezak the first person ever to touch moon dust with his bare hands, Mr Slezak said.

He cleaned the dust from the darkroom and the film using towels and tape, and then saved a scrap of the tape, he told the New York times.

Later, he affixed the scrap of tape to a poster presented to him that was signed by the Apollo 11 astronauts.

Read more: Stolen Apollo 11 moon dust recovered