International Space Agencies Are Going to Smash a Spacecraft Into an Asteroid

[We Never Know]

It's been on its path for millions/billions of years along with many others. Let's knock it off its path. Question I'm wondering is will it then, since it will be on a new path, create a chain reaction eventually colliding with others and knock them off their paths?

International Space Agencies Are Going to Smash a Spacecraft Into an Asteroid

 

[Polymath257]

It's been on its path for millions/billions of years along with many others. Let's knock it off its path. Question I'm wondering is will it then, since it will be on a new path, create a chain reaction eventually colliding with others and knock them off their paths?

International Space Agencies Are Going to Smash a Spacecraft Into an Asteroid

The quick answer is no.

Our spacecraft won't have the momentum to deflect the asteroid by much. From the article, it will change the period of its orbit around the close, larger asteroid by a few minutes.

Even if we were able to knock it completely away from that larger asteroid, though, it would be very unlikely to collide with anything else later. Unlike sci-fi movies, the asteroid belt is actually very sparsely populated. The distances involved are HUGE on the scale of the asteroids themselves.

 

[BSM1]

It's been on its path for millions/billions of years along with many others. Let's knock it off its path. Question I'm wondering is will it then, since it will be on a new path, create a chain reaction eventually colliding with others and knock them off their paths?

International Space Agencies Are Going to Smash a Spacecraft Into an Asteroid

Sorta like a game of pool on a cosmic scale (...Mars in the side pocket)?

 

[Valjean]

Oh, the humanity!

 

[exchemist]

The quick answer is no.

Our spacecraft won't have the momentum to deflect the asteroid by much. From the article, it will change the period of its orbit around the close, larger asteroid by a few minutes.

Even if we were able to knock it completely away from that larger asteroid, though, it would be very unlikely to collide with anything else later. Unlike sci-fi movies, the asteroid belt is actually very sparsely populated. The distances involved are HUGE on the scale of the asteroids themselves.

As Slartibartfast says, "In space travel, all the numbers are awful".

 

[We Never Know]

Sorta like a game of pool on a cosmic scale (...Mars in the side pocket)?

Kind of what i was thinking lol