Asteroid 2012 DA14 Flight Path

[Screamer7]

How close will the next one be?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=1lAp4SkutiE

 

[Izack]

The link does nothing on this PC. Is it intended for mobile?

 

[Sunhillow]

I entered the thread title into youtube search
-->

Screamer's link looks strange...

 

[Donamy]

My Birthday !!

 

[Screamer7]

Yes, I was on my S3. Maybe that is why.
Thanks for fixing the link Sunhillow.

 

[Quick_Nick]

My phone has never made a link like that! :lol:
Actually froze my S3 browser.

 

[Screamer7]

My phone has never made a link like that! :lol:
Actually froze my S3 browser.

I copy the video URL link and paste it to my post message.
Maybe that was not the proper way to do it.

 

[MikeB]

I hope someone is making a scenario for Orbiter, to show the close pass and how it affects the orbit. (My first try didn't come close.)

 

[statickid]

=o.o=

 

[N_Molson]

Its dimensions are roughly those of a Space Shuttle, but it's 1000x heavier (120,000 tons).

Credits : NASA

If it hit the Earth, the effect would have been comparable to the Tunguska impact. Pretty harmless over a desert area like northern Siberia, but very nasty on a crowded place like Japan, China, India, Europe or the USA East Coast.

 

[Donamy]

Why does everyone pick on the east coast, why not the west coast for a change ?

 

[dgatsoulis]

I hope someone is making a scenario for Orbiter, to show the close pass and how it affects the orbit. (My first try didn't come close.)

I remember Ajaja using JPL's HORIZONS System to get RL data on MSL's trajectory.

*If* I did this correctly, here is the scenario with a DeltaGlider on 2012 DA14's path.

BEGIN_ENVIRONMENT
  System Sol
  Date MJD 56329
END_ENVIRONMENT

BEGIN_SHIPS
Asteroid 2012 DA14:DeltaGlider
  STATUS Orbiting Earth
  RPOS  1.754586974493593E+09 -1.816720364739523E+09 -4.591188876970029E+09
  RVEL -2.141792973017218E+03  2.150570628468501E+03  5.306029014983445E+03
END
END_SHIPS

I got the data from this (generate ephemeris) and converted to m , m/s. It doesn't look too bad.

 

[Izack]

My Birthday !!

Surprise!! We all pitched in and got you a big rock!

 

[Donamy]

Surprise!! We all pitched in and got you a big rock!

oooooo, I hope it's shiny and yellow. :woohoo:

 

[MikeB]

*If* I did this correctly, here is the scenario with a DeltaGlider on 2012 DA14's path.

That's great, dgatsoulis! Thank you!

I recommend viewing with the Orbit MFD, showing Earth as target so you can clearly see where the close approach is. It's pretty neat to see the inclination change rapidly just after close approach, and the other elements change, though not so drastically. I also had the Sync Orbit MFD, with Earth as target, to see the distance between them, but it cut out shortly before closest approach (Earth's gravity too strong?). Maybe IMFD's Map mode would work for that purpose?

I think I'll add some RCS propellant, so I can keep Earth in view along with the MFDs.

 

[dgatsoulis]

That's great, dgatsoulis! Thank you!

I recommend viewing with the Orbit MFD, showing Earth as target so you can clearly see where the close approach is. It's pretty neat to see the inclination change rapidly just after close approach, and the other elements change, though not so drastically. I also had the Sync Orbit MFD, with Earth as target, to see the distance between them, but it cut out shortly before closest approach (Earth's gravity too strong?). Maybe IMFD's Map mode would work for that purpose?

I think I'll add some RCS propellant, so I can keep Earth in view along with the MFDs.

I think it would be better to get an external view and use external MFDs. Target from Asteroid 2012 DA14 - Target to Earth

I made a copy of Deimos.msh (Deimos2) and resized it. Then I made a copy of Carina.cfg, renamed it to Carina2.cfg and edited the line of the mesh to use Deimos2. I run it and setup the camera.

Here is the scenario (you may want to zoom out a bit and change the FOV).

BEGIN_ENVIRONMENT
  System Sol
  Date MJD 56329
END_ENVIRONMENT

BEGIN_CAMERA
  TARGET Asteroid 2012 DA14
  MODE Extern
  POS 43.93 -109.04 -10.91
  TRACKMODE TargetTo Earth
  FOV 19.65
END_CAMERA

BEGIN_SHIPS
Asteroid 2012 DA14:Carina2
  STATUS Orbiting Earth
  RPOS  1.754586974493593E+09 -1.816720364739523E+09 -4.591188876970029E+09
  RVEL -2.141792973017218E+03  2.150570628468501E+03  5.306029014983445E+03
  AROT -2.86 1.04 -0.27
END
END_SHIPS

 

[MattBaker]

Just a few hours until 2012 DA14 is closer to the Earth than the satellites million of people just use to watch TV, but what struck my attention:

space.com: Earth-Buzzing Asteroid Worth $195 Billion, Space Miners Say
Two things that really confuse me about this calculation:
1.: How are they going to transport millions of metric tons of material to Earth?
2.: Current iron prices are $150/mT. How many missions can you launch to this asteroid if you assume you recover 10 mT of pure iron and want it to be cost-effective? I've seen bicycles worth more than that...

Compared to this "Deep Space Industries" (I always considered Deep Space to be extrasolar?) SpaceX's vision seem to be conservative...

 

[Cras]

Why does everyone pick on the east coast, why not the west coast for a change ?

if a meteor crashed into LA, not sure too many people would be able to tell.....

 

[Ajaja]

I remember Ajaja using JPL's HORIZONS System to get RL data on MSL's trajectory.

*If* I did this correctly, here is the scenario with a DeltaGlider on 2012 DA14's path.

No, HORIZONS uses right-handed coordinate system, Orbiter uses left-handed one. Need to swap Y and Z coordinates for correct conversion.

BEGIN_ENVIRONMENT
  System Sol
  Date MJD 56329
END_ENVIRONMENT

BEGIN_CAMERA
  TARGET Asteroid 2012 DA14
  MODE Extern
  POS 43.93 -109.04 -10.91
  TRACKMODE TargetTo Earth
  FOV 19.65
END_CAMERA

BEGIN_SHIPS
Asteroid 2012 DA14:Carina2
  STATUS Orbiting Earth
  RPOS  1.754586974493593E+09  -4.591188876970029E+09 -1.816720364739523E+09
  RVEL -2.141792973017218E+03   5.306029014983445E+03 2.150570628468501E+03
  AROT -2.86 1.04 -0.27
END
END_SHIPS

 

[garyw]

Can I suggest not using spaces for vessel names? It can cause odd things to happen with orbiter.

BEGIN_SHIPS
Asteroid_2012_DA14:Carina2
  STATUS Orbiting Earth
  RPOS  1.754586974493593E+09  -4.591188876970029E+09 -1.816720364739523E+09
  RVEL -2.141792973017218E+03   5.306029014983445E+03 2.150570628468501E+03
  AROT -2.86 1.04 -0.27
END
END_SHIPS