5 ms·

In highschool we used an air hockey table to come to the same conclusion: the laws of Newton are valid.

cj 4y ago
I would wager that Isaac Newton would have been hesitant to claim that an asteroid’s trajectory could be modified by humans.
- IshKebab 4y ago
  Probably not if he knew humans could launch rockets into space.
- hypertele-Xii 4y ago
  Literally Newton's Third Law: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This was the guy who figured out exactly that if the asteroid can modify your trajectory, you can modify its.
- sbaiddn 4y ago
  Because he ignored the possibilities of rockers, or because he didn't believe his laws are valid in the planetary scale?
zamadatix 4y ago
The mission was really about two things: 1) Does this design actually function as expected when we go to use it 2) How much deflection actually occurs. The second may sound like something you can answer with Newton but as the article points out: > “The amount of momentum that you put in the target is exactly equal to the momentum that the spacecraft came in with.” But if ejecta flies off the asteroid after impact, physics dictates that the asteroid can get an extra boost, said Cheng. “You end up with a bigger deflection.”... That’s a full 33 minutes shorter than its original orbital period, a finding that implied that a substantial amount of ejecta was produced.
- sbaiddn 4y ago
  1 the amount of deflection does depend on ejecta which.... depends on your target. Different target, different ejecta. Btw, in my own research I have to deal with balancing momentum to measure the amount of ejecta so Im quite familiar with the concept 2 what part of this design is novel? We've already landed on asteroids, presumably its easier to hit them instead (since you don't care about matching the speeds) I dont think they were interested in "asteroid defense" at all [1]. Space weapons race is roaring and this was an excuse to spend money on it on a nominally civilian project. [1] given the literally astronomical odds of an asteroid hitting us, this is the last thing we should be worried about. CO2, nuclear weapons, desertification, men's sperm counts are all far far more likely to do us in
deleted 4y ago
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russdill 4y ago
It was most decidedly an inelastic impact. It is not a useful way to validate newton's laws giving the overwhelming complexity of the event.
- sbaiddn 4y ago
  There are centuries of research into inelastic collisions, starting with Newton himself who, instead of resting on the laurels of his three laws, modeled the limiting case for high velocity collisions. Very cute model, btw. Aside from the material properties of this particular asteroid what did they find?

cj 4y ago

I would wager that Isaac Newton would have been hesitant to claim that an asteroid’s trajectory could be modified by humans.

IshKebab 4y ago
Probably not if he knew humans could launch rockets into space.
hypertele-Xii 4y ago
Literally Newton's Third Law: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This was the guy who figured out exactly that if the asteroid can modify your trajectory, you can modify its.
sbaiddn 4y ago
Because he ignored the possibilities of rockers, or because he didn't believe his laws are valid in the planetary scale?

zamadatix 4y ago

The mission was really about two things: 1) Does this design actually function as expected when we go to use it 2) How much deflection actually occurs. The second may sound like something you can answer with Newton but as the article points out: > “The amount of momentum that you put in the target is exactly equal to the momentum that the spacecraft came in with.” But if ejecta flies off the asteroid after impact, physics dictates that the asteroid can get an extra boost, said Cheng. “You end up with a bigger deflection.”... That’s a full 33 minutes shorter than its original orbital period, a finding that implied that a substantial amount of ejecta was produced.

sbaiddn 4y ago
1 the amount of deflection does depend on ejecta which.... depends on your target. Different target, different ejecta. Btw, in my own research I have to deal with balancing momentum to measure the amount of ejecta so Im quite familiar with the concept 2 what part of this design is novel? We've already landed on asteroids, presumably its easier to hit them instead (since you don't care about matching the speeds) I dont think they were interested in "asteroid defense" at all [1]. Space weapons race is roaring and this was an excuse to spend money on it on a nominally civilian project. [1] given the literally astronomical odds of an asteroid hitting us, this is the last thing we should be worried about. CO2, nuclear weapons, desertification, men's sperm counts are all far far more likely to do us in

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

russdill 4y ago

It was most decidedly an inelastic impact. It is not a useful way to validate newton's laws giving the overwhelming complexity of the event.

sbaiddn 4y ago
There are centuries of research into inelastic collisions, starting with Newton himself who, instead of resting on the laurels of his three laws, modeled the limiting case for high velocity collisions. Very cute model, btw. Aside from the material properties of this particular asteroid what did they find?