Am I understanding this correctly? Mission to capture an asteroid?

[Whackjob]

So, we'll finally have a minor planetary body we can adjust the orbit of, eh? Already the wheels in the Whackjovian lesser cognitive sphere begin to turn...

I have a request of the developers. Please do NOT hardcode the asteroid coming into contact with Kerban as some kind of disaster. PLEASE make it consider velocity!

Because I am planning a thing for when this comes. I want to launch a thing. This thing will go to the asteroid. This thing will then engulf it. Then this thing plus asteroid will go to LKO. Then this thing will conduct a powered landing on Kerbin.

This thing would be a beautiful thing. But this thing can't happen if the asteroid touching down causes mayhem in every instance, regardless of landing speed.

So, Devs? Think about your friendly neighborhood Whack. Don't let me down.

[Ravenchant]

You...you are planning to...land the asteroid?

Squad, if any of you happens to read this thread, please listen to him. We need to see this

[Whackjob]

If it's less than 2.2km across, then I can. Bigger than that and I can't make a ship big enough. That's a hard limit I can't yet get around.

[RocketPilot573]

Didn't the article say that landing the asteroid was already planned to be a part of the mission?

EDIT: Never-mind, I guess I just misread it...

Umm, 500 parachutes maybe?

Edited January 29, 2014 by RocketPilot573

[magnemoe]

I guess the asteroid is in orbit around the sun and hardly enter Kerbin SOI if it does it at all. If it crashes it will just be destroyed as any rocket parts.

[Whackjob]

Umm, 500 parachutes maybe?

Don't do chutes. Hence the powered landing.

[magnemoe]

You...you are planning to...land the asteroid?

Squad, if any of you happens to read this thread, please listen to him. We need to see this

The nasa mission is to capture an small one of 1-3 meters.

Yes some mod had asteroids who could be almost an km in diameter. I thought an fun mission would be to dock an orion nuclear pulse engine ship to it, change its orbit and do an aerobrake into LKO, this way I could combine ships powered by atomic bombs and aerobraking of asteroids, it should make Jeb very happy.

Unfortunately I never got into doing it.

[Whackjob]

Only 1-3 meters? I was hoping for 100-500.

[Lone K.]

They really need multiple asteroids that orbit around the Kerbol system in the vanilla game (no missions, actual asteroids that spawn at random points in the system).

Maybe some that are larger in size and can't be moved, and small ones that are able to be manipulated.

[katateochi]

I guess if it is an object which is more like a large bit of debris than a planet then this (wonderful) plan should be possible. I really hope Squad considers making it a manipulate-able object. I quite liked the idea of putting it in LKO and then building a station around it for, u know, science. But landing it would be awesome, and that should be worth sooooo much science!

[r4pt0r]

Only 1-3 meters? I was hoping for 100-500.

ive seen mods that scales the size of the communotrons up, i feel the same principal would work for your endevor. someone will inevitably do it if it isnt hardcoded.

[katateochi]

Only 1-3 meters? I was hoping for 100-500.

yeah but 1-3 meters, that's for beginners like NASA!! The Whackjobian Kerbals would be able to deal something far larger.

If it is larger than 2.2+km, you could get around that limitation with the Romfarer mods. I know u don't normally use mods but in this case using one to just extend the render distance would be worth it.

[SuperBigD60]

Instead of landing it, use KMP and push it at somebody else.

How's that for Montezuma's Revenge?

[Whackjob]

When I de-office tonight, I'll MS-paint some sketches with how I plan to build the capturerer.

[problemecium]

Hard mode: engulf the asteroid inside a ship, and then perform an unpowered landing on Kerbin using parachutes.

[CaptRobau]

Hopefully the new asteroid type body will be moddable.

[Richy teh space man]

Landing an asteroid.. now that's an ambitious idea..

One problem I see though is in making the connection between your ship and the asteroid strong enough to withstand the various forces acting on it.

[Guest]

Capture a small asteroid, bring it back to Kerbin, make it wear a funny hat and ride a bicycle. Profit!

[Pecan]

Christmas was a month ago. KSP was my early christmas present to myself. Squad's (or someone's) late christmas present for me is Whackjob.

Probably only you would think of such a plan. Almost certainly only you would DO it.

Thank you, just for even being there ^^

[thunderstar]

The nasa mission is to capture an small one of 1-3 meters.

1-3m? but they say they're going to land on it

[CalculusWarrior]

1-3m? but they say they're going to land on it

I think the original plan was to visit a Near Earth Asteroid and put astronauts on that, but unfortunately budget setbacks mean that the Orion capsule isn't as long-ranged as required to head that far out. As such, we're bringing the asteroid to us!

[astropapi1]

1-3m? but they say they're going to land on it

Last time I heard about it, plans were to capture it into LMO and send an Orion up there to do some science!.

[Xacktar]

The nasa mission is to capture an small one of 1-3 meters.

I was also hoping it was going to be bigger.

I wanted to make a base on it, then build a space station off of it.

[EndOfTheEarth]

You...you are planning to...land the asteroid?

Squad, if any of you happens to read this thread, please listen to him. We need to see this

If Squad had an infinate number of these things generating, or provides the ability to mod more in, I could see tomorrow's threads already:

"Youtubers constructing ring around Kerbin"

"3000 rocks being herded to form a new Mun"

"Look, I built a bridge from KSC to the island runway!"

"Impatient for a ringed gas giant? Look what we did to Jool!"

"Developing a new continent on Laythe..."

"Portrait of Jeb using constellation of asteroids"

"Playing Asteroid soccer with MechJeb"

"Getting bored of all these asteroids...how soon until comets?"

[NASAFanboy]

Why not we haul it to Laythe, then land it into the ocean on an boat, then proceed to sail around Laythe with an rocket-motorboat with an large space rock in tow. .

No wait, even better

I shall build a large metal hoop, then attach it to my spacestation. Then build another identical spacestation with the metal hoop.

Watch as the first season of spaceball begins!