“We need to radically increase the number of monitoring devices. If we spot an asteroid, we will need to blow it up or, more effectively, divert it from its course. We must act before it is too late,” the engineer says.

However, the proposed plan for a worldwide monitoring system has not been received enthusiastically. Critics say the price-tag for IGMASS could hit a meteoric $300 billion – and claim it will be a waste of money.

“Instead of solid observation work, we are being given some grand solution. I believe a lot of the money will be needed to support a large organization and its staff,” Sergey Barabanov, Director of the Observatory in Zvenigorod, Moscow region.

Astronomer Sergey Barabanov also claims that almost all the asteroids around the Earth have already been scouted by rival American and European systems.

He says that there is only a one in a hundred thousand chance that an asteroid which could threaten life on earth will head this direction in the next two centuries.

“There is a desire by the media to draw attention to any threat. There is a danger from asteroids, but we have been able to turn what were once probabilities into certainties. We do not need to panic,” Sergey Barabanov says.

IGMASS developers are now taking the project on the road, hoping to attract support from foreign governments and the United Nations. If they succeed, this will be one of the most ambitious scientific projects ever undertaken.

So as scientists say there is only a miniscule chance of a large asteroid hitting the Earth in the near future, it would appear that pumping billions of dollars into combating the problem is simply not worth it.

Whether or not the rest of humanity is willing to take that risk remains to be seen.

Boris Shustov from the Institute of Astronomy at the Russian Academy of Sciences urges everyone to calm down and not to worry, as the chances of an asteroid colliding with planet Earth are very low.

“The next event of a possible collision will occur in 2036 with the 300-meter Apophys asteroid, which is a rather dangerous body. However, the probability of [it colliding with the Earth] is estimated by the American astronomers at four chances per million. Other events that are more probable will occur in another dozen years – in 2047-2048,” Shustov told RT.