Colliding Things At Orbital Speeds in Kerbal Space Program

Colliding two objects in orbit at over ten thousand kilometers per hour is hard to pull off in Kerbal Space Program, in part the instrumentation sucks, but more importantly the physics system uses discrete updates and at high speeds it's common for objects to skip through each other. Mods come to the rescue!
This is partly a response to NerCubed's Insurance Scam
• Nerd³ Challenges... KS...
The fantastic ISS model I used was built by this guy:
• Video

[@Riael]

"Being in the right place is more important than being really big" -Scott Manley 2015

[@DamianReloaded]

+Riael EagleEye I think the consensus is that being hard enough is the most important part of the thing.

[@MrTekkitLPS]

+Damian Reloaded *sighs*

[@CharTheDude]

Don't worry if your rocket is on the small side. It's all about skill.

[@bojantodorovic6841]

+CharTheDude No skill will save you if you ain't got a big enough rocket to get the job done...

[@lilHamster9t7]

+Bojan Todorovic I'll bet that's a problem you're experienced with isn't it pal?

[@dabigboom8140]

He says "fly safe" right after giving us a tutorial on how to crash things together in orbit

[@Suedocode]

Yeah but no one died.

[@Zurtron]

R/hmmmm

[@cavalcadeofbobs3559]

@@Zurtron No. Not what that subreddit is.

[@richardsleep2045]

He just likes smashing things up lol.

[@josephdavison4189]

I feel like this is blursedcomments

[@zerumks]

Me and the boys committing insurance fraud in space

[@pandapops5428]

*Valentina and the boys

[@sensibleb]

Today in orbit, the *Large Kerbal Hadron Collider* successfully detected the Higgs boson.

[@serbianspaceforce6873]

Sensi Bleb what an amazing discovery

[@patata9502]

more like "*Large Kerbron Colider*"

[@Eclipse-mk3hm]

More like large Val, jeb, and bob collider

[@wraithbannon]

lmao...a typical docking for me ...

[@rainick]

+wraithbannon Whoa impressive.

[@321haiqal]

professional rendevous-er, horrible docker.

[@eeee69]

repetitive misses, ending in collision?

[@hypochondriac3194]

+wraithbannon Same

[@kerbodynamicx472]

It’s hard if you have that kind of precision

[@DavidELD]

Want to destroy a space station? Get Sandra Bullock.

[@lowestcommonDenomanator]

lol

[@vantave9946]

XD

[@DamianReloaded]

+DavidELD: 2 space stations and a shuttle.

[@chrisgaming9567]

+Damian Reloaded And Hubble

[@ovsgaming6063]

Get danny

[@oobanoobaisterrible]

“It’s not a small distance” Says while travelling at 2km/s

[@luisitocomunista546]

Space is huge. Just because you are going 2km/s doesn’t mean it’s not gonna take time. In terms of space travel, that’s a relatively slow speed

[@oobanoobaisterrible]

Yeah. I was talking about him saying that a few metres was a big distance. But yes 2km/s is fairly slow

[@alexgshirreff]

I had my volume turned all the way up. HULLO IT'S SCOTT MANLEY HERE.

[@scottmanley]

+shirreff gamer Sorry, new computer, mic settings are reset.

[@emperorSbraz]

+Scott Manley heh, to a degree it's a test for your compression/filtering on the voice channel. XD

[@thelegend2o7]

Me too😅

[@bryanseare2704]

Yesss that how it be.

[@raffaeleethandraketatel4506]

i had mine accidently connect to a speaker. the whole house heard lmao

[@CherriPicking]

*spends 20 minutes crashing ships into other ships, and at the end* "... and fly safe!" NO, Scott, YOU fly safe :)

[@whocares427]

15:35 That was a pretty magnificent explosion.

[@Argomundo]

Finishes colliding things: "Fly save" .............................................................................. yeeeeeaaaaaaaahhhhh

[@dude_geode_miner]

+firefalljumper are we the only ones who find that funny XD

[@Argomundo]

+dude.geode.miner The likes will show with time

[@dude_geode_miner]

+firefalljumper indeed :-)

[@menethyr]

+dude.geode.miner I love them too, i'm just late cause scott slowed down my time D:

[@dude_geode_miner]

+Ghost Stinger LOL he has The Power! :-P

[@AnimeSummit]

I'd love for you to do a bit of ISS exploding to fill the orbit area with debris and do a launch through it. Either as a demonstration of how unlikely it is to hit debris, or as a demonstration of catastrophic failure

[@macsmith2013]

Scott Manly: maniacally laughing while blowing up the ISS. Also Scott Manly: "Fly safe" Oh Scott, never chance.

[@andrewduguid1103]

GOD DAM IT SCOTT DO A COLAB WITH NERD CUBED ALREADY

[@sbryans123]

+Andrew DUGUID Dont like the swearing but YES this needs to happen!

[@ppiness1940]

+InformalMrTom lol

[@andrewduguid1103]

+InformalMrTom wait what....?

[@AGoldSoldier]

*damn, a dam blocks water A damn is the act of damnation

[@AGoldSoldier]

Essentially, you told God to stop/block the collab

[@Outpost38C]

Isn't this the plot of Gravity

[@chrisgaming9567]

+Kaemer() this time its intentional

[@macsmith2013]

Gravity has a plot?

[@Outpost38C]

@@macsmith2013 _Gravity (2013)_ did.

[@StainedShuriken333]

15:30 One of the greatest examples of the Kessler Effect ever virtualized.

[@NikopolAU]

17:40 Jeb is confused. "What have I done ???"

[@insylem]

I always love how Scott says "Fly Safe" right after he blows something up.

[@gauravghosh3421]

Scott , do a video on orbiting satilites inside the atmosphere.

[@Jojodude8]

+Scteam2000 please do

[@multimapping8303]

Yes please :D

[@gauravghosh3421]

+Scteam2000 thanks everyone is saying Secret fact : reallife satilites orbit inside the atmosphere but at the thinnest part exoshpere or thermosphere.

[@cbg5049]

+Gaurav Ghosh and ISS is falling right at ur house sherlock

[@gauravghosh3421]

mat liki kasim Yes All satilites up tp 1000,0 km are falling.

[@importedsausage5593]

15:55 Have you considered a career in poetry? lol

[@Novasky2007]

Sean Bean: Spin carefully you're spinning around on my spinny roundy thingy.

[@bryanseare2704]

"Everything just spinning around like some insane spinny roundy thingy." -Scott Manley 15:53 😅 You kill me Scott.

[@Daveigus]

here is a fun challenge for you, now that you've almost completely destroyed the ISS, rebuild it using as much as possible from the original debris orbiting kerbin using KAS or something

[@aka_pcfx]

This could result in the most boneshattering high five ever.

[@looksintolasers]

Scott this was genuinely terrifying. Just imagine something the size of a spaceship leaping out from the darkness of space at 10,000 m/s... *shudder*

[@andramoie]

If you look at the behaviour of the remains of the rockets you might be able to proove the existence of short-lived intermediate spaceships. As your final state seems to have missing transverse energy I postulate the existence of mass-less, weak interacting rockets, that are created in the scattering event.

[@AlicevanGallifrey]

You tell us to fly safe and just did THIS?! I like you^^

[@joeracer302]

Scott, could you recreate the maneuvers from The Martian and discuss the feasibility of what they did in the movie, and if it is non-realistic what would need to be done to accomplish something similar?

[@JohnSF93]

+joeracer302 from what I've been reading of the making of the Martian, Andy Weir (book author) ran all the orbital math beforehand to make sure his dates, events and manuevers lined up perfectly; so that checks out.

[@joeracer302]

JohnSF93 Actually, after posting this I watched a bunch of other videos and did some reading. I came across the same info as you did, and although I don't know how to check the math myself, it seems that Andy Weir did do the math and it checked out for him at least :) Still, they would have all died from radiation poisoning :)

[@hamstsorkxxor]

Nah, living on mars surface, whilst in a spacesuit, gives you a highly increased risk of cancer, not radiation sickness.

[@Sander_Datema]

Don't think it would be possible in KSP. The Hermes uses continuously burning ion engines. Good luck getting to mars (RSS) in phisics warp.

[@Nunya111]

@@JohnSF93checks out more-so in the book, they changed a lot for dramatization

[@ruiningwang1644]

Oh that slowmo mod is brillant! Time to do the rod of the gods again! :D

[@Ezis9]

I had JUST watched Gravity last night...

[@kronasoosanork]

Will you actually team up with Nerd³ or will I keep being given nerd blueballs by you two?

[@timothymclean]

+ben dover Dan lives in England. Scott lives in California. Even if the latter didn't have kids, scheduling any team-ups between them would be tricky.

[@skinnywah]

+Timothy McLean no Dan lives in candida. He moved a year ago.

[@dandude720]

+Callum Smith you mean ashens

[@Axelthemage]

+Timothy McLean There is this thing called the internet. It makes that fact less relevent.

[@timothymclean]

***** Not really. Time zones are a bitch.

[@TheRealPlato]

Thanks Scott! Could you please use Kerbal Joint Reinforcement and deorbit this station? Your other station deorbit video is one of my favorites!

[@scottmanley]

+The Real Plato Great idea!

[@BabaSmithVideos]

420 views 42 likes and 0 dislikes Dank

[@VladArakelov]

1600 views 160 likes 0 dislikes

[@dvoraj20]

3280 views 328 likes 0 dislikes wow

[@matthewprice8362]

+BabaSmith 4730 views 473 likes 0 dislikes

[@petrino]

+Jan Dvořák fine. have a dislike :P

[@CharTheDude]

+Matthew Price not as dank

[@89nekkoinu]

yep, exactly my thought. nerdcubed insurance challenge

[@pjt1974]

Made my day seeing this pop up in my subscriptions. I know I was probably only one of thousands to suggest showing Dan how to do it but still a buzz when you see it. Another excellent video Scott

[@lifehacker123]

Awesome, I've been waiting for this video ever since Nerdcubed's attempt!

[@Women_Rock]

I've been waiting for a video like this👍

[@driftman2724]

*crashes spaceship into space station* "Im Scott Manley, fly safe." -Scott Manley 2015.

[@mattbell4498]

Love your content Scott keep it up!!

[@pikamario99]

"Collisions in space are fun!" "Fly safe." Hmmm...

[@michaelhice7636]

such beautiful destruction. *wipes tear from eye*

[@maggnus87]

"Collisions in space. they are fun! i am scott manley fly safe" cant say that sounds very safe to me

[@DiveTheseClips]

wow this is so cool, Scott, can you make a video with more slow-mo collisions (with post processing time acceleration)? Maybe with some music on the background like you did in that wingsuit video

[@sir_wheat_thins]

I don't know if "Fly safe" is appropriate for this video

[@liranpiade4499]

"Explosions don't look like that in space" Sure, but the ISS is manned, wouldn't the fact that it's manned and filled with oxygen allow for a huge ball of fire?

[@denyraw]

It would most likely look like the exhaust of a vacuum rocket engine for a very short moment, and the like nothing because the gas is way to spread out to react. Also an explosion needs oxygen and FUEL in order to happen.

[@Perseagatuna]

@@denyraw the fuel are the people

[@TasDAmour]

That was THE MOST fun that I've had totally nerding out since Street Countdown!

[@randalftheblack2572]

"Fly safe" he says.. After telling us how to smash two spaceships together at orbital speeds...

[@yehoke8748]

wow imagine thousands of little space debris going 10kms IRL going the opposite direction of the iss then encountering it then hitting it...

[@austinsennott]

Scott, for New Year's you should make a slo-mo montage of high-speed collisions set to some awesome music.

[@GameSphere]

I love nerdcubed! Thanks for doing this! :)

[@jekanyika]

Are you sure you didn't feel a "woosh" as it went by?

[@brodlemcfatass6916]

+Ashton Riker (EnderBomber) AIR WOOSH.... IN SPACE!!!!!

[@NordboDK]

Scott felt the wind in his hair.

[@farenhite4329]

But this is space

[@ZaccoOfficial]

Heh

[@vanguardian1368]

r/wooosh

[@hookiebookie1]

+Scott Manley Y'know, this video was published on my birthday while I was working on my MEng aero thesis in Glasgow University (I'm working on passive satellite stabilisation). Made for a great video to watch, and still topical! (so I counted it as study, haha!) Great upload, thanks very much!

[@Kaiimei]

I was so sure that this was because of NerdCubed, and when you said it, I just laughed so hard at knowing xD

[@AlohaMilton]

Some of the deviation is the game calculating for the mechjeb units location versus the ship center of mass, as you rotate that changes the closest approach number as the MechJeb rotates around the COM. Long ships, one can see the relative speed to target really jump and drop as one rotates the craft to align a port etc. Kinda scary sometimes if one is being a little lazy watching the instruments and glances at the closing rate while the command unit rotates around the COM 'holy crap 8ms! oh, yeah... rotation'.

[@eNTiii90]

Let' s see if Sandra Bullock can survive that. 15:25 Love your videos btw!

[@oneheartonemind2681]

I love that the serious business thumbnail preview is just a rocket plane tumbling end over end.

[@timothyrex8734]

Fly safe. LOL! Yeah, good advice after that. :)

[@Videoswithsoarin]

>tells you to fly safe >flies unsafely

[@stupidgenius42]

This is the definition of docking with an engine and not RCS

[@FishPit]

I'm glad you posted this. Are there many satellites that are in reverse orbit? Free space must not be too much of a problem aside from the debris layer! I was questioning myself about this the other day after learning some planets and moons orbit the opposite way! Here's another question. If the discovery of the Earth's rotation and orbits were discovered in the southern hemisphere, and we called the North the south, and visa versa would the Earth's rotation be considered to be counter clockwise? Sorry if it's a stupid question. Keep up with the great content. Fly safe!

[@________stephens8251]

everything just flying around spinning around like some insane spiny roundy thingy

[@faisal2401]

hi scott... if u remember the docking training. it says that we should turn off the RCS when changing orientation bcos it's sensitive for intersection as it would change ur orbit

[@cp3peters]

you should start a minmus or duna base series, maybe use some space planes in it too. I think it would be a really cool challenge for you to take on! great video BTW.

[@petermarsh4578]

I saw you on nerdcubed's channel and hoped that you would expand your comment into a video.

[@zubmit700]

You made a video where you tried to simulate ring formation (or something similar?) by detaching a lot of decouplers and then time accelerate to see how they spread. Could be fun to make some collisions with some ISS's and then time accelerate a couple of years to see Kerbins new ring system.

[@eekee6034]

The Kerbal video I never knew I needed to see. :D

[@picketthespacewizard3749]

Thank you Scott, very cool!

[@mathieumarlaire]

Scott, you have just entered the domain of the Nerdcubed.

[@bacon.cheesecake]

+mmarlaire that's no longe his theme song, which sucks.

[@mathieumarlaire]

+Bacon CheeseCake Ok then...

[@SuperSMT]

The Nerd who?

[@MrUnknownzz1]

+Bacon CheeseCake It'll always be in our hearts.

[@danielliu4346]

+SuperSMT THE NERD CUBED! Why? Just cause...3

[@MrFzzt]

Impressive! Thanks for the ideas.

[@DropBlairCares54]

Saying fly safe after causing mulitple collisions. well done!

[@wyyyve]

I have a challenge for you, I want you to do an equatorial atmospheric survey of Eve with a spaceplane with the goal of circumnavigating Eve at the lowest possible altitude with a manned vehicle and being able to return to orbit.

[@diegofloor]

Always wanted to collide two opposing orbits but never bothered. Thanks for doing it!

[@amberlewis012]

How did I not see this even though I watched NerdCubed lmao...Cool video!

[@bolivardigriz8847]

:-D! Love the Evil Scott laugh @ ~15.40. "Collisions in space: They are fun. Fly safe." ROFLing at this time! Almost LCOBing but I already went. :-D!

[@MagisterMalleus]

That debris cloud was magnificent. Kesslerific.

[@jefferyssparks]

Hey Scott, Have you considered doing a "Gravity" scenario? I'm sure it would be a royal pain to put everything in line where it would work out, but this seems like a logical progression from what you're doing in this video.

[@nathanchilders7331]

No one can hear you commit insurance fraud in space

[@leerman22]

With mechjeb you could just use "Fine tune closest approach to target" set to 0m and set a ridiculously low tolerance.

[@nathangonzales-hess6569]

Thanks Scott! I've been wanting to do this, but now I can do something else instead!

[@danzel2]

"Collisions in space, They are fun. I'm Scot Manley, fly safe"

[@Nick-bh5uk]

The momment i saw the title I knew that this had to do with NerdCubed :D, also did you take the grumble grumble from Dan or was that just a coincidense that you used it?

[@DowzerWTP72]

When I saw your comment on his video, I began praying that you'd do your spin on it!!

[@miniops12]

"Some insane spinny-roundy thing."

[@Bebeu4300]

Literally smashes two space things together at very high speeds. "I'm Scott Manley, fly safe". Made a very good example there, Scott!

[@JACK-ze8rp]

"like a giant space bird. A bird that of course , has been hit by a spacecraft travelling at hundreds of meters per second" -only in KSP

[@Zorro9129]

This is the best way to dock with a station.

[@Remaggib]

16:00 that is beautiful. now launch a shuttle into the debris field and it will start looking like that movie.

[@Swagtoph]

Well done Scott! You not only looked after insurance scams but also made a abridged and way better version of the Movie "Gravity" ;)

[@r0cketplumber]

In Orbiter, the Encounter MFD lets you tweak the miss distance with great precision.

[@austinkane1]

Christ this was tedious. God bless you man.

[@razor589]

Just got inspiration how to get enough debris around kerbin to make the launches more realistic in matter getting into space without being hit by that stuff :D

[@PolesAreEverywhere]

Its amazing to think of that its possible that two large vessels can pass eachother centimeters apart at speeds that are hard to imagine (over 14 km/h!) and you wont feel anything passing by, just a flash of a light, you would blink and you would miss it comepletely

[@PolesAreEverywhere]

+PolesAreEverywhere just checked it out, that 4x faster than rifle bullet

[@Henrik.Yngvesson]

Feels so weird watching a launch the other way.

[@syitiger9072]

That explosion was insane

[@GamesCooky]

Just goes to show how difficult it actually is for something to collide in space. Space is so vast. Chances of anything colliding is so low. Especially when you don't have gravity to pull the object towards you.

[@tacticalassaultanteater9678]

will you manage a return Gravity style in the imddle of debree with Jebediah?

[@schpau9339]

Can you do the same with 90 degrees inclinatin? It would be cool if it hit from the side!

[@Aminuts2009]

Your a mad scientist, I love it.

[@scottmcdonald3867]

In most insurance contracts there is a clause that would nullify the policy for intentional acts.

[@yodu45]

Now, orbital High-five!! please scott. also mickeal bay level explosions!

[@natenjohnson]

15:37 is the part you all clicked on this video for. You're welcome.

[@Kurayamiblack]

Kitten Dispenser is a hero

[@sensualarmpit3512]

thank you. This idiot keeps talking about how physics are more accurate if they are slower, without realizing that physics fps is independent of graphical fps. Love it when idiots talk shit out of their asses.

[@boomdini9744]

Sensual Armpit then why did you say you hate it

[@gramptbeele1966]

@@sensualarmpit3512 How dare you talk shit about our God Scott manley

[@sensualarmpit3512]

@@gramptbeele1966 duno man, its natural