what are the chances

[Commander Jebidiah]

What are the chances of my space station orbiting at 160x160 km equatorial colliding with my weather satellite orbiting at the same altitude but in a 90 degree polar orbit?

[Themohawkninja]

Between the real-life account of that happening only once, and a single maneuver allowed such an impact to be avoided, along with the fact that in KSP collisions aren't calculated outside of (A) Physical time warp speeds and ( the current vessel, I'd say that the chances of that happening are slim-to-none, and that's being pessimistic.

[yaur]

Unless you are doing it on purpose very little. because 1) space is big 2) if they are both exactly at 160kmx160km they will be in 1:1 resonance and 3) if they aren't both exactly at 160kmx160km they are probably going to miss when they cross paths because they won't both be at exactly 160km.

edit: and as Themohawkninja points out the collision won't even be calculated unless you are within a couple km of the intersection.

[Commander Jebidiah]

Unless you are doing it on purpose very little. because 1) space is big 2) if they are both exactly at 160kmx160km they will be in 1:1 resonance and 3) if they aren't both exactly at 160kmx160km they are probably going to miss when they cross paths because they won't both be at exactly 160km.

edit: and as Themohawkninja points out the collision won't even be calculated unless you are within a couple km of the intersection.

The reason I'm asking is I'll be spending a lot of time near or on the station for awhile and it would be very annoying as I get my work in progress shuttle within 100m then boom and there's no station anymore.

[Vanamonde]

If they are at the same altitude, they will collide either every time or never. They'll be synchronized, and the closest approach will pass each other, twice per orbit, at the same distance every time.

Also, this is a gameplay question, so thread moved.

[Blue]

Even if their altitudes aren't exactly perfect yet have closely aligned orbits, and you're fearing that due to minor imperfections in their orbital characteristics one might change phase and "catch up" to the other, the whole physical parameters work down to an accuracy of millimetres. The odds are infinitesimal that they would even come within visible distance of one another, unless at the very least their inclinations were matched perfectly as well--which would have to be an intentional thing to be done in itself.

If you provided the save file, I'm sure someone on this forum would be happy to calculate the odds of it happening, but I'm certain that you'd find you have a statistically higher likelihood of being hit by a car or falling down stairs in the real world.

[TurkeyXIII]

If you're really worried about losing progress, quicksave every few minutes. But that kind of collision is virtually impossible.

[RSwordsman]

Infinitesimal. LKO is much smaller than LEO, but even so, it's frickin' big. The chances of minor velocity changes making it so they will eventually collide are too small to consider.

[Bean]

It is incredibly unlikely. That said it has happened to me once before.

Jeb was near the station I think was the issue, things just explode near him.

[thereaverofdarkness]

If you had put the poll options as such:

1.) 0.01 - 0.1%

2.) 0.1 - 1%

3.) 1 - 10%

4.) 10 - 90%

then people would have still voted overwhelmingly in favor of the first option.

That being said, if the orbits are even just a tiny smidge away from directly intersecting, then it's completely impossible for them to collide.

[Bobe]

Even though the probability is effectively zero, why don't you just put them at different altitudes? In reality, polar-orbiting weather satellites like the NOAA series orbit at altitudes between 800 and 900 km, whereas the ISS orbits at roughly 400 km. If you were to mimic this in your scenario, the weather satellite would ideally be at about 300 km. My kethane scanner around Kerbin has a polar orbit of 600 km, so it never gets in the way of stations or departing vehicles.

[Commander Jebidiah]

Even though the probability is effectively zero, why don't you just put them at different altitudes? In reality, polar-orbiting weather satellites like the NOAA series orbit at altitudes between 800 and 900 km, whereas the ISS orbits at roughly 400 km. If you were to mimic this in your scenario, the weather satellite would ideally be at about 300 km. My kethane scanner around Kerbin has a polar orbit of 600 km, so it never gets in the way of stations or departing vehicles.

There at the same altitude because the weather(spy Sat) went up before the station ad I forgot what altitude the weather satellite orbited at and now they both have no engines and I don't plan on adjusting the orbits using RCS