Colliding with planetary rings

[theend3r]

What would be the result of a craft colliding with a planetary ring, say Saturn's?

I imagine that a collision at high speed would mean destruction of the craft but what if the craft had only a slight inclination and circularized before passing through the ring? Would you be only repeatedly passing through the debris at slow speed then? If the debris were fine and dense enough (esentially making the ring nearly solid) you'd be able to walk on it, right?

[lajoswinkler]

Mostly 10 m thick layer of icy lumps. You can't walk on that.

[theend3r]

Mostly 10 m thick layer of icy lumps. You can't walk on that.

If

I know I can't. The question was if it were possible to orbit a planet with a ring in its ring-distance.

[YNM]

The Cassini probe goes through Saturn's ring several times, no ? And it's still fine...

For a planet (say, Earth), you might be interested in this what-if scenario : What If Saturn Paid Us a Very Close Visit ? The ring isn't really devastating, it's the gravity.

[SargeRho]

But the Cassini probe went through the aptly named Cassini Division, a nearly-debris free zone between the A and B ring, or flew past outside and inside of the rings.

[KerbMav]

.

Sidenote: I outright hate websites that do not (visibly) state a date for their articles. "This weekend" is useless and it would only be a valid timestamp if the page was deleted afer a few days and not kept available "forever".

[YNM]

Sidenote: I outright hate websites that do not (visibly) state a date for their articles. "This weekend" is useless and it would only be a valid timestamp if the page was deleted afer a few days and not kept available "forever".

But there's the timestamp of when the page was created, on the top-right :

May 12 2014 7:30 AM

Not sure about the timezone used, but least are, next time, check around the pages.

[YNM]

But the Cassini probe went through the aptly named Cassini Division, a nearly-debris free zone between the A and B ring, or flew past outside and inside of the rings.

Hmm... Never knew that. But yeah, going directly through clouds of ice chunks isn't a good idea.

--------

Sidenote: I outright hate websites that do not (visibly) state a date for their articles. "This weekend" is useless and it would only be a valid timestamp if the page was deleted afer a few days and not kept available "forever".

But there's the timestamp of when the page was created, on the top-right :

May 12 2014 7:30 AM

Not sure about the timezone used, but least are, next time, check around the pages.

[peadar1987]

What would be the result of a craft colliding with a planetary ring, say Saturn's?

I imagine that a collision at high speed would mean destruction of the craft but what if the craft had only a slight inclination and circularized before passing through the ring? Would you be only repeatedly passing through the debris at slow speed then? If the debris were fine and dense enough (esentially making the ring nearly solid) you'd be able to walk on it, right?

You wouldn't be able to walk on it. Either you'd be going at orbital speed, same as the rings, in which case you'd just be floating around, not walking, or you'd be stationary, in which case you'd be being bombarded by ring particles at orbital speeds (about 684m/s at the edge of the main rings), which would be immensely bad for your health.

[theend3r]

You wouldn't be able to walk on it. Either you'd be going at orbital speed, same as the rings, in which case you'd just be floating around, not walking, or you'd be stationary, in which case you'd be being bombarded by ring particles at orbital speeds (about 684m/s at the edge of the main rings), which would be immensely bad for your health.

Not really. Imagine it being solid as I said. Your orbits would then intersect at two points which means you would be pushed "down" onto the ring which would continue indefinitely as you couldn't pass through it.

Edited July 4, 2014 by theend3r

[Z-Man]

Orbits don't work that way, they are not static things that force your trajectory. Assuming your solid ring and no unpleasant collision effects, as you push "down" on it, the ring pushes "up" on you, changing your orbit until it aligns with the ring. At that point the pushing would stop and you would just float alongside the ring.

[theend3r]

Orbits don't work that way, they are not static things that force your trajectory. Assuming your solid ring and no unpleasant collision effects, as you push "down" on it, the ring pushes "up" on you, changing your orbit until it aligns with the ring. At that point the pushing would stop and you would just float alongside the ring.

I doubt that. Your relative velocity would be nearly zero but unless you were touching you would never stop relative to each other.

[Z-Man]

unless you were touching

Dunno about you, but for me, "walking" implies "touching".

You would be touching the ring from time to time, every half orbit at least; no orbit can stay in the "upper" half space indefinitely. If you are careful*, you could skip along (but one step every hour or so is not walking).

*If you are not and the ring is fully solid and rotates rigidly like a record, you would get flung off either on the inside or outside.

[theend3r]

Dunno about you, but for me, "walking" implies "touching".

You would be touching the ring from time to time, every half orbit at least; no orbit can stay in the "upper" half space indefinitely. If you are careful*, you could skip along (but one step every hour or so is not walking).

*If you are not and the ring is fully solid and rotates rigidly like a record, you would get flung off either on the inside or outside.

If you have two objects with identical orbits and different inclinations and one of them is static/on-rails (understand heavy enough that the force you apply to it doesn't matter) and you were situated directly "above" it you would need to go through it and below to continue your orbit normally. Since you can't (it stops you) you'll be experiencing artificial gravity (all the time, not twice per orbit).

The ball can't pass through the ring so the image of potential and real orbits would stay the same forever and the ball would be thus "pushed" into the ring:

red orbit: the path the ball will take

green orbit: the path it would take if it wasn't blocked by the ring

PS: the ball is touching the ring now

Edited July 4, 2014 by theend3r

[theend3r]

-- doublepost --

Edited July 4, 2014 by theend3r

[Everten P.]

Of you passed behind or ahead of a Shepard moon in the same orbit you might have a chance because Shepard moons clean out the black rings of Saturn where there are almost no asteroids.

69th post!

[theend3r]

Actually, now that I think about it it probably wouldn't be possible after all. This would lead to force being applied to the craft which would accelerate it and make it leave the orbit. Centrifugal force?