[complete!] 111 Days

[OrbitalManeuvers]

So this is my first post to this forum, and not what I had planned. But I think I have discovered an interesting situation, and if I'm seeing it correctly, I think it might make a fun mission report.

Can you help me figure out if this is what I think it is?

Tonight was the first time I've ever tracked an asteroid. The second one I selected is shown below (I resized in the post, but I think you can click for full size?)

If I may point out the obvious:

• the asteroid I'm tracking is the yellow orbit
• Earth (KSRSS at 2.5x) is the blue orbit
• the asteroid has an encounter with Earth shortly after its periapsis. wut wut.

 

Here I'll zoom into the encounter. Notice there's no Pe marker on this orbit?

 

Zooming in farther...

So, unless I'm mistaken, there are 111 days until the potential end of our species? Obviously I saved this game under the name Deep Impact as soon as I saw this.

I have questions! Is this common? Does this seem interesting? Do you think it'd be fun to ... errrrrm ... IDEK? 

I have zero exposure to the asteroid mechanics in game, and have no idea what happens when an asteroid intersects - I assume the asteroid just disappears? But does something actually enter the atmosphere? Clearly I would need to be flying in the area at the time. Or on a boat.

Anyway - please share any thoughts about this potential(?) mission! And honestly, if this happens every 3rd time you start a new game I'm not gonna be that into it

Thanks!

[Watermel00n]

Flies right through.

[Randazzo]

Unless you intercept it and ride it down. Then it bounces.

[Nazalassa]

When you have to "save the planet", you only save the asteroid — so don't worry, KSP will delete the space rock before it hits the ground.

[OrbitalManeuvers]

5 hours ago, Watermel00n said:

Flies right through.

3 hours ago, Nazalassa said:

When you have to "save the planet", you only save the asteroid

Haha ... I kinda figured my hopes were too high.   DANGIT. At least I had something that looked dramatic in the tracking station!

[Maria Sirona]

But i would still enjoy seeing a mission to save the planet!

[Nazalassa]

3 minutes ago, Maria Sirona said:

But i would still enjoy seeing a mission to save the planet!

Then edit potatoroid.cfg somewhere in your game files so it doesn't explode due to overheating.

Or redirect a bigger asteroid, perhaps a class H or I.

Or both. (Woooow, I'd like to see that!)

[OrbitalManeuvers]

41 minutes ago, Maria Sirona said:

But i would still enjoy seeing a mission to save the planet!

Honestly, ME TOO. I fear I may be a bit smooth-brained for this, but maybe with some help. I've already spent a minute in the tracking station and with a craft in orbit, and neither MechJeb nor I have any clue how to get to this thing. 

36 minutes ago, Nazalassa said:

Or redirect a bigger asteroid, perhaps a class H or I.

This one happens to be a Class H. It's currently zipping along at 14km/s, and is about equidistant from its Pe now as to when it will impact Earth, so should be about that same speed.

Welp, time to hunt for some tutorial videos!

[Nazalassa]

If you didn't change potatoroid.cfg, the asteroid will just burn, and explose... No need for a mission, let the nature do it!

[Vanamonde]

Get your dinos to their bomb shelters. 

[OrbitalManeuvers]

Well, not wanting to disappoint anyone, I took a stab at this. The results were exactly as expected for not knowing anything about wrangling asteroids!

I honestly had no idea what this would involve but here I am with 3400m/s, and my TWR is probably around 4.

AND THEN I GRABBED IT

But I think you know that with 7m/s I wasn't moving that thing anywhere. 

So, I proudly present the final moments of my first asteroid:

Thanks for tuning in

 

[Maria Sirona]

Great editing and choice of music