Preventing an Extinction Level Event

[TanDeeJay]

Hi all,

The kerbals in the tracking station brought to my attention an asteroid designated QTM-779 that is on a collision course with Kerbin.   It is due to hit Kerbin within the next 15 days.

 

 

Is this something I could divert?  Do I have enough time? Do I have sufficient technology?  Biggest rocket engines I have are the RE series (Skipper, Poodle and Mainsail)  Don't have the nuclear engine yet.  Trying to figure out how to intercept it, but all the online tutorials about intercepting asteroids I've found so far talk about intercepting at the periapsis, however, the periapsis is deep within Kerbin!  Can I save the Kerbals from extinction, or do i just sit back and wait for the inevitable?

 

Cheers,

John

 

[HebaruSan]

The main tech you need is the claw; you use it to grab the asteroid for pushing:

https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Advanced_Grabbing_Unit

As long as you've got that, yes, you can definitely divert an asteroid from hitting Kerbin, though as you've realized, you'll need to rendezvous before its periapsis.

1. Build a spacecraft with a claw, a Poodle, and maybe 3000 m/s delta V, give or take
2. Attach a launch vehicle that can put it into orbit (i.e., so the 3000 m/s starts once you're in orbit)
3. Launch it to the same inclination as the asteroid
4. Target the asteroid
5. Place a maneuver opposite the asteroid's incoming path
6. Increase the maneuver's prograde component and watch what happens with the close approach markers
7. Fiddle with the maneuver; eventually you should be able to put your craft into the asteroid's path just as the asteroid is reaching the same spot; that's your intercept!
8. Burn
9. Rendezvous with the asteroid (see various docking tutorials for help, this is its own process)
10. Open the claw and grab the asteroid
11. Rotate so you're pointing perpendicular to the asteroid's path
12. Burn and watch the asteroid's periapsis ascend out of the ground
13. As soon as it's >70 km, you're done!

Also, spoilers:

Spoiler

Nothing happens in-game if the asteroid hits. But maybe you already know that; it's much more fun to make believe.

EDIT: Further note, 15 days might be a little too long to do this conveniently. It only takes about 7 days to get all the way out to Minmus, which is nearly at the edge of Kerbin's sphere of influence, so if this Kerbin-killer is 15 days out, you might be looking at an intercept outside of Kerbin's SOI, which can be harder to plan. If you wait till it enters Kerbin's SOI, getting the intercept should be a sure thing.

Edited August 18, 2018 by HebaruSan

[bewing]

Yeah, if you intercept it out around where minmus is now, you won't even have to push on it very hard to significantly change the Pe. The farther from kerbin that you intercept, the more "leverage" you have to change the orbit.

To intercept it is pretty easy, actually -- just so long as you are pretty good at rendezvous maneuvers. Get your ship out near that incoming orbit. Go into target mode on your navball, and push the retrograde/prograde markers on top of the appropriate target markers. Wait for the asteroid to get close, and then burn retrograde to match the orbital speed. Then you will have plenty of time to grab and push the rock. Even a swivel would be a big enough engine to push it around.

 

[Vexillar]

Well done, and welcome to the Kerbal Corp of Miners! 

[TanDeeJay]

Yes I have the advanced grabbing unit.

Your instructions worked! thanks.  The Kerbal space program thank you

The astroid got parked in kerbin orbit, and is now getting converted into LFO and monopropellant

[TanDeeJay]

Hahaha! That asteroid produced less LFO than it took my minimg ship to intecept it.

[mystifeid]

9 hours ago, TanDeeJay said:

Hahaha! That asteroid produced less LFO than it took my minimg ship to intecept it

Which ISRU did you use?

[TanDeeJay]

2 hours ago, mystifeid said:

Which ISRU did you use?

Convert-o-tron 250, with an engineer onboard

[TanDeeJay]

It was a 15T asteroid with 10T of ore.

Since it was so easy to capture that 1st one, I'm lining up to capture another. 14 kerbin days until transfer  maneuver node.. 

[TanDeeJay]

I still screw up my gravity burn when launching so went into some of my astroid mover's fuel on lift off.. stopped in at the Kerbin Fuel Station to top up before heading off to divert a disaster

"We're gonna need a bigger fuel station"

 

So, what does everyone do with their used asteroids?  The Kerbals sent this one on an escape trajectory...

[XtraChrisP]

Get yourself a BigS rock!!! I found a Class E that was on a collision course with the North Pole.  I launched an intercept mission and, using a really nifty gravity assist from Mun, managed to place it in an equatorial orbit.  That beast fueled my Duna flotilla and still has plenty left over for my upcoming Jool mission

Edited August 20, 2018 by XtraChrisP
Typo

[TanDeeJay]

I'm tracking a few asteroids in my tracking center. But once you start tracking the object size is replaced with the object name, and I cant remember which one was the big one. How do I find an objects size once I've started tracking it? 

[HebaruSan]

36 minutes ago, TanDeeJay said:

I'm tracking a few asteroids in my tracking center. But once you start tracking the object size is replaced with the object name, and I cant remember which one was the big one. How do I find an objects size once I've started tracking it? 

Hover the 'i' icon in the bottom right to bring up an info panel while focused on the asteroid:

[TanDeeJay]

43 minutes ago, HebaruSan said:

Hover the 'i' icon in the bottom right to bring up an info panel while focused on the asteroid:

Ah, I'll have a look when I get home tonight. Thanks!

[Zeiss Ikon]

Worth noting that the 15 T asteroid you captured is only about the size of the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk a couple years ago.  That one was probably 1/10 the size of the one that blew up over Tunguska in 1908 (hard to be sure, the Tunguska one might have had a steeper trajectory and thus penetrated lower in the atmosphere before breaking up).  The Tunguska object, in turn, was likely about 1/10 the size of the one that created Barringer Crater in Arizona -- so we're up to around 1500 T now (the Barringer object, obviously, reached the ground more or less intact, but then fragmented so completely that only a few hundred pounds of identifiable fragments have been found since the discovery of the crater).

An extinction-level event would require something approximately the size of the one that hit Chicxulub (on the coast of modern-day Yucatan) 65 or so million years ago.  Estimates of that object's size (10-15 kilometers) place its mass roundly a million times that of your 15 T asteroid.  You could argue that a smaller object would do the same job on tiny little Kerbin, but you're after something closer to the size of Gilly than any of the asteroids in game.

[TanDeeJay]

it sounded good as a thread title

The kerbals that reported it didn't know any better. It was the 1st asteroid they discovered on a collision course, and they panicked

[Ultimate Steve]

5 hours ago, Zeiss Ikon said:

 

An extinction-level event would require something approximately the size of the one that hit Chicxulub (on the coast of modern-day Yucatan) 65 or so million years ago.  Estimates of that object's size (10-15 kilometers) place its mass roundly a million times that of your 15 T asteroid.  You could argue that a smaller object would do the same job on tiny little Kerbin, but you're after something closer to the size of Gilly than any of the asteroids in game.

Yes, you've got to factor in that Kerbin is 1/10 the size of Earth.

[bewing]

Yeah, I can just hear the talking heads on Kerbal-CNN overhyping it and milking it for all the ratings points they can get.

 

[TanDeeJay]

15 hours ago, bewing said:

Yeah, I can just hear the talking heads on Kerbal-CNN overhyping it and milking it for all the ratings points they can get.

 

And the successful diversion generated a massive funding boost for the Kerbal Space Program

[TanDeeJay]

Of course, the Kerbin Independent Scientific Studies community were doubtful of the hyped up televised claims about the devastation potential of the asteroid as their study of the asteroid suggested it was smaller than the fridge in the kitchen at the Kerbal space centre. But unfortunately, no one paid any notice to an organisation with the initials K.I.S.S.

 

Edited August 22, 2018 by TanDeeJay
Changed Kerbal to kerbin