Just a little question

[musicpenguin]

I've wondered this for a while. Hypothetically, What if there was an object that was on a path to descend towards a planet. That object then docked with another Craft. Would the object continue to fall, or would it enter orbit? Just a little curious!

Edited October 25, 2015 by musicpenguin

[Canopus]

The relative velocity would be immense. Docking would be impossible. Both the object and the station would collide and be completely destroyed.

[Kerbface]

This would work in much the same way a bullet docks with a tin can on top of a fence.

[Canopus]

This would work in much the same way a bullet docks with a tin can on top of a fence.

This is sums it up pretty well:)

[Anglave]

Yeah, an object on a reentry path "docked with a space station" means the station is on the same path. So the everything will reenter (and presumably burn up or crash) together.

[K^2]

This is basically along the same lines as question that someone asked about grabbing onto the space station while passing it by on a re-entry trajectory. I'm guessing, that thread got lost with many others in the crash.

Basically, yes, relative velocities are too high. But if, say, you used a really long and really strong bungee chord to attach yourself (or your ship) to the station, if nothing breaks, you'll end up with a weighted average of the two velocities (weighted by mass due to conservation of momentum). Whether that puts you and the station on re-entry path or if you stay on orbit will depend on exact trajectories and masses. But station's orbit will most certainly change.

[Kerbface]

I think this is just a case of people's tendency to liken space with airflight. Like if a ship is shot or blows up, the wreckage will fall, they might sometimes think of a reentry trajectory hitting a station as being like someone jumping and landing on a plane, the plane will still fly.