and for computing coverage in areas of natural disasters and local conflicts, "the president of Energia, Vitali Lopota, during a scientific conference in Moscow.

Lopota said that those satellites "will be crucial to locate military targets and will strike capability, and may also be used" within a comprehensive system designed to repel terrestrial impact threats from asteroids and comets. "

The executive noted that, according to estimates, this type of military satellites will have a mass of twenty tons and a lifetime term of ten to fifteen years, and could begin operating in series from 2017, according to the Interfax news agency.

He said future orbiting platform is unified nuclear-powered reactors with a power of between 150 and 500 kilowatts, and will have two antennas than twenty feet in diameter.

However, Lopota not specify what means of attack such satellites have or how they can divert any asteroids that threaten Earth.

The head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Anatoly Perminov, announced last December that Russia will develop technologies and devices to prevent the possible impact of the asteroid Apophis with the Earth in 2036.

"The mathematical calculations show that in this period is possible to create a special cosmic apparatus in order to avoid the collision without destroying or blow up the asteroid," he said in an interview.

"No nuclear explosions. Everything will be done in accordance with the laws of physics," he said of the techniques to be employed to deflect the trajectory of Apophis, named for the Russian press "asteroid murderer.

Perminov said that the fight against large asteroids and meteorites are among the major projects Roscosmos and the threat posed by Apophis will soon focus a meeting of the Scientific Council of the Russian space agency.

Roscosmos chief recalled that the Apophis (2004 MN4 asteroid), 270 meters in diameter, is three times larger than the famous Tunguska meteorite, which in 1908 destroyed 2,000 hectares in Siberia.

On its way to the Sun, in 2029 Apophis will pass very near Earth, a distance of 30,000 km, lower than geostationary satellites, and threatens to impact the Earth on his return, to 2036.

That impact would be devastating than several thousand atomic bombs which some become the desert means an area comparable to France.

While the U.S. space agency NASA reported in October that its scientists had significantly reduced the chance that the Apophis hits against the earth's surface in 2036.

Perminov also said that the government will allocate 12 million euros for the development of spacecraft powered by nuclear energy, such as those needed for flights to Mars, and this year will begin research to design new space module.