Asteroid could hit Mars

[Spider]

link

How cool would this be? It would stir up the surface making a fresh new impact crater to study, plus with the Mars orbiters mapping the planet some really exciting pictures of the immediate damage to a terrestrial planet that asteroids can do.

Hey, if nothing else, better Mars than us.

 

[Gertch]

That would be neat. Especially if the whole event were recorded. But watch, it'll probably land on one of our sturdy rovers and never touch ground. The rover will hang it's camera and radio back - 'Oops, my bad.'

 

[All Seeing Eye]

It would certainly be interesting if the Asteroid got caught in Mars gravity very close to the planet but instead of hitting Mars got swung by the gravitational pull of Mars and got redirected towards Earth. We'd be in some serious shit.

 

[bigdaddy]

Fire said:
It would certainly be interesting if the Asteroid got caught in Mars gravity very close to the planet but instead of hitting Mars got swung by the gravitational pull of Mars and got redirected towards Earth. We'd be in some serious shit.

I think that was a Sci-fi Channel Saturday movie. :-p

 

[Johnny Rico]

bigdaddy said:

Fire said:
It would certainly be interesting if the Asteroid got caught in Mars gravity very close to the planet but instead of hitting Mars got swung by the gravitational pull of Mars and got redirected towards Earth. We'd be in some serious shit.

I think that was a Sci-fi Channel Saturday movie.

Fixed smilie.

In any case, if an aseroid would hit Mars now, it'd probably stir up a large amount of debris and dust and then really kill off the Rovers.

 

[137th Gebirg]

^^^ Good point, being solar powered, if they're cloud-covered for an extended period of time, they may permanently die without hope of a reboot. Kiss another coupl'a millions of dollars goodbye.

 

[TerriO]

137th Gebirg said:
^^^ Good point, being solar powered, if they're cloud-covered for an extended period of time, they may permanently die without hope of a reboot. Kiss another coupl'a millions of dollars goodbye.

Dude, we kissed that money goodbye in 2003-2004. The only money going into MER now is the funding to keep the science mission going on Earth.

Something like this would, however, make for one helluva place to send the next rover mission.

 

[SeerSGB]

TerriO said:

137th Gebirg said:
^^^ Good point, being solar powered, if they're cloud-covered for an extended period of time, they may permanently die without hope of a reboot. Kiss another coupl'a millions of dollars goodbye.

Dude, we kissed that money goodbye in 2003-2004. The only money going into MER now is the funding to keep the science mission going on Earth.

Something like this would, however, make for one helluva place to send the next rover mission.

"MER II: The Search For Opportunity"

Oh come on, you know people are going to want to find out what happened to those robots.

One good thing that might come out of this: A large impact should kick up a shit-load of new samples from deeper inside the planet...though fuck all if it won't be a million in one shot that we'll actually have anything functioning in the area to study them ~sigh~

 

[Gertch]

TerriO said:
Dude, we kissed that money goodbye in 2003-2004. The only money going into MER now is the funding to keep the science mission going on Earth.

Money definitely well spent. Those guys were built so well we certainly aren't owed any money on that venture. Of course that's also why I joked about them standing up to an asteroid.

 

[Mysterion]

^^^^
Next lander that gets sent needs to go into the bottom of that crater (if it happens). Could be a serious science boananza, I would think.

 

[Ronald Held]

Has anyone checked this out on the MPC site?

 

[James Bond]

Fire said:
It would certainly be interesting if the Asteroid got caught in Mars gravity very close to the planet but instead of hitting Mars got swung by the gravitational pull of Mars and got redirected towards Earth. We'd be in some serious shit.

Man, we just can't catch a break.


I, for one, really hope this thing does collide with Mars. Just imagine the opportunity to study an event like this; imagine the priceless scientific data.

And if the aftermath does cause the death of the rovers, at least they'll have gone out with a bang!

 

[Noname Given]

OhZedMasTree said:

Fire said:
It would certainly be interesting if the Asteroid got caught in Mars gravity very close to the planet but instead of hitting Mars got swung by the gravitational pull of Mars and got redirected towards Earth. We'd be in some serious shit.

Man, we just can't catch a break.


I, for one, really hope this thing does collide with Mars. Just imagine the opportunity to study an event like this; imagine the priceless scientific data.

And if the aftermath does cause the death of the rovers, at least they'll have gone out with a bang!

Well, if you really want to know about a possible Extiction Level Event on possible horizon for Earth itself - there's always this little item

Where will you be in 20209 and 2036?

 

[Zachary Smith]

It would be interesting if this asteroid hit Mars and a temporary lake formed in the crater due to permafrost thawing from the heat of impact.

 

[M'Sharak]

Fire said:
It would certainly be interesting if the Asteroid got caught in Mars gravity very close to the planet but instead of hitting Mars got swung by the gravitational pull of Mars and got redirected towards Earth. We'd be in some serious shit.

Awfully unlikely, too. I wouldn't bet any serious money on it, if I were you.

Johnny Rico said:
In any case, if an aseroid would hit Mars now, it'd probably stir up a large amount of debris and dust and then really kill off the Rovers.

I think you're figuring on an Earth-density atmosphere to suspend and transport said material to the rovers' locations. Just how well would Mars' atmosphere circulate the ejecta from an asteroid strike and how close/where, relative to the impact point, would a rover have to be to be significantly affected by this material?

 

[Lieut. Arex]

Check this link out: JPL Small-body database. Too bad we couldn't have hitched a ride on it when it came by Earth in November (within @ five million miles).

 

[Rarewolf]

137th Gebirg said:
^^^ Good point, being solar powered, if they're cloud-covered for an extended period of time, they may permanently die without hope of a reboot. Kiss another coupl'a millions of dollars goodbye.

Given that they were only expected to last 90 days, I think 1400 days each have done is good enough.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7137793.stm

 

[Outpost4]

Very cool site. Thanks.

 

[Ronald Held]

Thanks for that site. if I have the time, I will try to compute the close encounters wits has with Mars.

 

[Bird of Prey]

From what I get, January 31, 2008 is approximately when they will collide. That's pretty scary considering it's just over a month away.