NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test Is a Smashing Success

Re:NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test Is a Smashing Suc... by ch_ase on Saturday January 14, 2023 @06:46PM (#34385279)

I was always wondering how far they knocked it off its original path. As in, if it were on a path to hit Earth and we impacted it at the same distance away, how far would it miss Earth by?

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Re:NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test Is a Smashing Suc... by russdill on Sunday January 15, 2023 @12:01AM (#34386860)

Basically no change in it's orbit around the sun, it's gravitationally bound to a much larger asteroid.

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Re:NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test Is a Smashing Suc... by dtgriscom on Sunday January 15, 2023 @10:06AM (#34389924)

... but the pair's orbit was changed by some amount. How much?

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Re:NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test Is a Smashing Suc... by zamadatix on Sunday January 15, 2023 @12:07AM (#34386896)

Even assuming it wasn't part of a larger system it's hard to give a useful answer for this without a specific orbit and timing. The Δv here was ~2 cm/s which isn't much but what that means in encounter distance depends on the other variables more than it depends on the impact. If you've ever tried to set up encounters or dock in KSP you know what I mean!

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