MankindsError t1_itm5v1i wrote on October 24, 2022 at 5:44 PM

Reply to comment by burtzev in Deflecting asteroids is not enough — we need to know when they approach by burtzev

I guess that's where distance and velocity come in? So if you only move it a small amount, over a great distance it would be enough to make a hit a miss? Say we have 18 months a millions upon millions of miles before impact. We push it successfully a short distance which makes its trajectory a miss for earth. We could then plan out where it will be in the future and in necessary do it again? I don't know much about the subject or the math that goes into something like this. It's just really interesting

bestest_name_ever t1_itn8b87 wrote on October 24, 2022 at 9:53 PM

Yes, this is pretty much spot on. Accuracy isn't actually important, because in a theoretical mission where we're saving earth, well, it was already going to hit. We can't accidentally make it double hit, so the only thing that matters is changing the orbit enough so it no longer hits. And because asteroids are inert, it doesn't even matter if the new course isn't perfectly safe and would still hit earth next time it comes around, because when we know of an asteroid we can track it, so that case would buy sufficient time to do another deflection mission.