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If it was that hard to hit things we'd never accidentally crash orbital landers, and yet this happens all the time. The amount of fuel needed to park it in a p
by astrodust 10y ago
If it was that hard to hit things we'd never accidentally crash orbital landers, and yet this happens all the time.
The amount of fuel needed to park it in a perfect orbit is more than to park it in a sloppy, potentially decaying one.
- Dylan16807 10y agoWhat's an orbital lander? Landing is very hard. Getting into a medium-high orbit is not. Such an orbit might be sloppy, but it won't decay. Yes I know about the mars climate orbiter, but that was a very low orbit because of the use of aerobraking, and it was small enough that extra fuel would more easily go unnoticed.
- astrodust 10y agoIf you're already in orbit around something (Earth, Sun, etc.) then it's pretty expensive and hard to crash into the thing you're orbiting, but if you're trying to go from one body to another there's lots of ways you could drive straight into the thing by accident. A minor miscalculation on a slingshot approach sends you straight into the planet instead. That we hit Mars with the lander by accident should demonstrate it's not only possible, it's actually not that hard.