Questions tagged [impact]
Questions regarding the collision of one thing with another
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How likely is it that the Voyager spacecrafts haven't yet been damaged by micrometeoroids?
Both Voyagers have been traveling at over $60,000$ km/h for well over four decades and still seem to function properly, taking into account the slowly dropping power and warmth available from their ...
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What are the chances a space probe will make it to another star without hitting a bit of space dust?
tl;dr: What is the density of "space dust" or micrometeorites in interstellar space, and how likely is it that a tiny interstellar craft could avoid hitting any?
In a future time we will likely ...
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Does earth orbiting debris that threatens the space station have a particular direction bias?
I'm starting to investigate the danger of orbital debris on the ISS (international space station). One could assume that due to the orbital velocity vector, that any debris that the ISS encounter, ...
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Is the UK Space's MoonLITE project still on?
Impacting the Moon with ballistic projectiles to study its surface characteristics through debris plume sounds fantastic to me, especially with the success of previous such missions (or better said ...
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Is Starman/Roadster in any danger in the asteroid belt?
Elon tweeted that Starman's trajectory is going to overshoot Mar's orbit and bring it close to the asteroid belt. Does this mean that Starman is in danger of being crushed by an asteroid??
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Legality of nuclear debris field on the Moon?
A while ago, I asked about what happens to a nuclear engine that gets smashed into the Moon. While not conclusively answered, it's likely that the contaminated area would be of significant size.
But ...
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Have any bits of a space mission ever collided with a planet or large moon (not Earth) that was not a target of the mission?
For example, a mission to Mars for which some bit of hardware ended up entering Venus's atmosphere.
Has this ever happened, or at least are there projections that it may happen?
CommunityBot
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What is the methodology to determine a meteorite strike vs space debris?
From this tweet, it seems the ISS Soyuz that sprung a leak in December was damaged by a micrometeorite
Here's little bit more info on Soyuz MS-22 impact. The trajectory analysis very strongly points ...
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Whats left of the DART Spacecraft after impact?
DART impacted Dimorphos with around 6km/sec, which is really fast. I am wondering what is left of the spacecraft? What state is it now probably? Seeking the results of car crashes with 200+ kph when ...
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How would I calculate the resulting orbit of Dimorphos around Didymos A after the DART mission?
I have been trying to find a way to calculate how the DART mission affected Didymos A, independent of NASA's findings. I found one answer to this question, but it was as if they ignored Didymos A and ...
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Why not crash the ICPS into the Moon?
The Wikipedia article on Artemis 1 says that an ICPS disposal burn was performed after spacecraft separation. This was intended to send the ICPS into heliocentric orbit after passing the Moon. Why ...
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How different would a comet impact be vs. an asteroid impact?
If a 50 meter asteroid caused a 1.5 kilometer crater as Barringer Crater is described, how different would the impact of a 50 meter comet be, assuming the comet was 85% water and other volatiles, with ...
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What happens if a centimeter-sized particle hits a spaceship at orbital velocity?
How much damage would a centimeter sized particle weighing a few grams do when it impacts a spaceship at orbital velocity? Let's say 30 km/s (Earth's rotation speed around the Sun). Such a particle ...
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Are there any specific plans for how to deal with near-Earth comets? If not, should there be?
You hear a lot about how NASA, ESA and other space agencies are taking action to catalogue asteroids that might one day collide with us, but also figure out how to avert such a catastrophe if one day ...
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Where will the March 4, 2022 impactor hit the Moon? Will it be visible from Earth?
Wikipedia's LCROSS says:
Centaur impacted successfully on October 9, 2009, at 11:31 UTC. The Shepherding Spacecraft descended through Centaur's ejectate plume, collected and relayed data, impacting ...
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