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Re:SpaceX craft overshot Mars’ orbit and is headed to astero... by Facemelters on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @10:39AM (#16325111)
depends on the destination / trajectory of the object. This object has almost zero chance of ever hitting anything, so it doesn't have to go through the super crazy sanitizing that the Curiosity rover did.
Re:SpaceX craft overshot Mars’ orbit and is headed to astero... by everdev on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @10:43AM (#16325146)
That was probably true of the original trajectory, but now it's supposed to fly quite close to Ceres and scientists want updated data to see if a collision is likely.
Re:SpaceX craft overshot Mars’ orbit and is headed to astero... by ryanwaggoner on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @10:50AM (#16325213)
“Quite close” is relative, given how ridiculously vast space is. The chances that they fire blindly out into space and just happen to hit Ceres seems so unlikely as to be basically impossible.
Re:SpaceX craft overshot Mars’ orbit and is headed to astero... by everdev on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @12:15PM (#16326065)
True, but it's not like you have to hit an object head on, but merely pass within it's gravitational field which is far bigger.
Re:SpaceX craft overshot Mars’ orbit and is headed to astero... by ceejayoz on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @12:18PM (#16326109)
Pass within its gravitational field at a slow enough relative speed for capture. Remains exceeeeeeedingly unlikely.
Re:SpaceX craft overshot Mars’ orbit and is headed to astero... by everdev on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @06:59PM (#16329064)
Nonetheless people are asking SpaceX for data to calculate the probability because they seem to think it's higher than 0 because of the unplanned trajectory.
Re:SpaceX craft overshot Mars’ orbit and is headed to astero... by privateSFacct on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @11:47AM (#16325772)
The pale blue dot image gives some sense of scale here. Is it in the orbital plane of Ceres? I too would be interested in seeing the data results. If it's not orbiting on same plane then risks of collision drops further it would seem - would involve a plane intersection at the exact distance from sun Ceres orbit is at same time Ceres is there.
Re:SpaceX craft overshot Mars’ orbit and is headed to astero... by garmaine on Wednesday February 07, 2018 @11:29AM (#16325559)
It will not cross Ceres orbit.