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Questions tagged [impact]

Questions regarding the collision of one thing with another

77 votes
6 answers
26k views

Is the SpaceX Falcon Heavy payload (a Tesla car) space junk?

Yesterday SpaceX succeeded in the first Falcon Heavy launch, but the payload, a Tesla car has no real useful purpose (except for company prestige). Thus, can it be considered as space junk ? How long ...
Covich's user avatar
  • 909
11 votes
1 answer
1k views

How might one approach using AI (convolutional neural network) to predict collisions in orbit?

CNN's Tomorrow's Hero profile Meet Amber Yang. She's trying to prevent a space debris catastrophe describes an investigation into the use of a convolutional neural network (CNN) to predict possible ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
6 votes
3 answers
1k views

What is the typical relative impact velocity of orbital debris in low Earth orbit?

We all know that space is about going really fast. We also know that what matters in a collision isn't really absolute speed, but relative velocity. (Two cars with matched speeds on a highway touching ...
user's user avatar
  • 7,330
14 votes
1 answer
5k views

How frequently do asteroids collide with each other?

Space is empty ... lots of empty. Apparently so empty that the risk of collision between a spacecraft of our times, and an asteroid in the asteroid belt is said to be infinitesimal. Running a search ...
Everyone's user avatar
  • 13.6k
6 votes
1 answer
638 views

Understanding gravitational keyhole analysis for Near-Earth Objects

I've been studying the resonant return and gravitational keyhole analysis for NEOs and using the extension of Öpik's theory of close encounters (aka Öpik-Valsecchi theory, Valsecchi et al., Astron ...
Astroynamicist's user avatar
26 votes
5 answers
7k views

BBC: "A rocket launched by Elon Musk's space exploration company is on course to crash into the Moon and explode." Will it really explode?

The line following the title of BBC's Elon Musk SpaceX rocket on collision course with moon reads: A rocket launched by Elon Musk's space exploration company is on course to crash into the Moon and ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
17 votes
1 answer
6k views

Aren't the mirrors of the James Webb Space Telescope too unprotected?

I've looked at the design of the James Webb Space Telescope and I got curious about something, some years ago, it seems that the international space station was hit by micro-meteorites. I'm wondering ...
user avatar
12 votes
7 answers
2k views

Is it (or why is it) worse to break up a asteroid on a collision course with Earth?

It is quite common to find (pseudo?) scientific statements to the effect that blowing up asteroids which are heading our way is a very bad idea, and that the movie Armageddon got this point totally ...
Karthik T's user avatar
  • 221
11 votes
2 answers
1k views

What risk management options are available for Mars orbiters and rovers to mitigate threat of impacting with Siding Spring cometary debris?

I was reading this article on New Scientist titled Fiercest meteor shower on record to hit Mars via comet. Long story short, the Oort cloud comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring is predicted to near-miss Mars ...
TildalWave's user avatar
  • 76.2k
10 votes
1 answer
4k views

Could a gun fired inside the ISS rupture it?

We know there is at least one gun in the ISS the caliber seems to a state secret. According to Wikipedia and NASA large pdf there are over 100 shield configurations on the ISS. These would be ...
James Jenkins's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
576 views

Which two satellites had a 44% probability of collision at 2017-01-07 21:53 UTC?

I saw this message on space-track.org: The JSpOC has identified a close approach between two non-maneuverable satellites in a sun-synchronous orbit (approximately 800km altitude) with a time of ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

Extinction asteroid (10-100 km) impact avoidance

With the present "state-of-the-art" of space technology what is possible to do to avoid an Earth impact by rocky bodies 10 km to 100 km in diameter? Is there any international project to develop a ...
Pedro Paulo Pereira Jr.'s user avatar
52 votes
5 answers
16k views

Does NASA have an end-of-the-world policy?

If an asteroid were detected, shooting towards earth with enough speed and certainty that it would all but guarantee a sequel of the end of the dinosaurs. Observatories and space agencies would almost ...
TheEnvironmentalist's user avatar
22 votes
3 answers
1k views

What is the probability of impact?

Space Track is a website dedicated to passing along information about satellites to consumers, primarily satellite operators. The information comes from the US military. In addition to providing the ...
PearsonArtPhoto's user avatar
  • 121k
13 votes
1 answer
2k views

BBC: "In 2009 Prof McDowell & other astronomers performed an experiment in which a similar-sized rocket was crashed into the Moon." Really? Which one?

The line following the title of BBC's Elon Musk SpaceX rocket on collision course with moon reads: A rocket launched by Elon Musk's space exploration company is on course to crash into the Moon and ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k

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