Captured Asteroid

Captured Asteroid
Base Data
Radius	100 meters
Gravity	0.034 m/s2
Timewarp Height	250 meters (253 meters in some locations)
Color	Grey
Orbit Data
Semi-major axis	37 200 km
Eccentricity	0.37
Argument of periapsis	247°
SOI radius	5000 meters

The Captured Asteroid is a small, unnamed asteroid that orbits Earth. It is 200 meters in diameter and was added in the 1.5.10 update. Compared to everything else, it has the weakest gravity of any object in Spaceflight Simulator.

Orbit insertion and capture can be very difficult due to the body's low gravity, small sphere of influence, and high relative velocity during encounters.

Orbit

The Captured Asteroid has an orbit around Earth at an average distance of 37,200 kilometers, which is around two times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon. It orbits the Earth every 16 days and 13 hours with a fairly high eccentricity of 0.37; because of this, its perigee of 23,436 kilometers brings it close to the moon's orbit, and its apogee of 50,964 kilometers is around halfway between Earth and the edge of its sphere of influence.

Terrain

Its terrain is very similar to that of Phobos, but its terrain is more jagged than that of Phobos, which is one of the two moons of Mars. Its surface appears to be made of silicate rock, as it has a gray surface. The surface has small, sharp, grey rocks on the surface.

Moving on the asteroid

Driving a rover on the asteroid is difficult because the rocket will probably escape its gravity and orbit Earth instead.

• A solution is to use ion engines or RCS thrusters and turn on the Infinite Fuel cheat on the rover to keep it on the surface.
• The second solution if you do not have the Part Expansion Pack, is by using rotation, since like Phobos and Deimos, the gravity here is also too weak to hold rotations.
• It is also possible for someone to use an RCS powered probe to hover around and land on the moon. Be sure to slow down on time, or risk escaping the SOI

Part Behavior Demonstrations

Due to the near-zero gravity of the captured asteroid, it is possible to demonstrate the magnetic forces of docking ports from there easily. If you undock from the ladder^[?], you would be able to guide it magnetically toward your direction. It will turn to your spacecraft if you are close enough.

Achievements

There are two achievements for the Captured Asteroid. Both on Medium and Hard difficulty.

• Crash at the surface of the Captured Asteroid at 200+ m/s
• Land on the surface of the Captured Asteroid

Trivia

• Unlike other in-game bodies, the captured asteroid is fictional.
• It is the smallest celestial body in-game.
• Its file name is "Near_Earth_Asteroid.txt".
• There have been some asteroids that get captured into orbit around Earth. The most recent example of a temporary moon is 2024 PT₅, which was captured in orbit on September 29, 2024 and it remained there until November 25, 2024.
• It uses "Asteroid" for the texture.
• The sneak peek image of the asteroid has been shown to have a retrograde (clockwise) orbit, but in the release, it has a prograde (counterclockwise) orbit.
• It can give funds to the currently inaccessible Career mode. The funds given are 10 million for both entering and exiting the SOI, 20 million for going low orbit, and 50 million for landing.