3294: Asteroid Mission

Asteroid Mission

|< < Prev #3294 (September 4, 2026)

Title text: Lander, this is Houston. There's been a request that you turn clipping back on and instead set the mass to 1kg. The theorists believe that will be pretty funny.

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Explanation

This is one of 49 incomplete explanations: This page was created by a bot with a mass of 0.000001 kg. Don't remove this notice too soon. You can help by editing the explanation!

This refers to noclip mode in videogames: "A cheat that allows players to pass through normally impenetrable objects – walls, ceilings, and floors – by disabling clipping". In most online games this results in a ban. In others it disables achievements, or requires enabling cheats. Often it functions from a built-in developer console, such as in Source (game engine) games such as Half-life (video game) or Portal (video game). In most cases though, it requires a third-party hacked client, such as in Geometry Dash where the noclip mod in many clients allows the player to pass through obstacles without dying.

The title text suggests not to enable noclip and instead just reduce mass to 1 kg. If the asteroid is assumed to have a volume of about 1000km³, this would reduce the density of the asteroid to 10^{-15} g/cm^3 and the energy of the asteroid to a few kJ. This relatively small amount of energy would be rapidly dissipated by friction with the outer atmosphere, and then the asteroid would float in the upper atmosphere (probably until the solar wind blew it away). This would be "pretty funny".

Transcript

This is one of 33 incomplete transcripts: Don't remove this notice too soon. You can help by, editing the transcript!

[A news reporter is standing in front of an image of a rocket.]

The asteroid is headed for Earth, but a mission has been launched to intercept it.

[Cueball and Megan are walking off a lander with some equipment.]

[A laptop is on the ground, and Megan plugs a peripheral from the laptop to the asteroid.]

[Cueball types into the laptop.]

>noclip on

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Discussion

First time I've ever gotten the first comment 128.119.202.28 17:15, 4 September 2026 (UTC)

Breaking News: The XKCD Store IS BACK 144.121.25.46 17:18, 4 September 2026 (UTC)

How did I do with the transcript? Majordesmosnerd (talk) 17:35, 4 September 2026 (UTC)

I don't think the "Roshe limit" part is right. Whatever mass the asteroid has. The Roshe limit depends on distance, and any asteroid will be below the Roshe limit at some point. But so what? It will still hit the Earth. Roshe limit is relevant to orbiting bodies, not impactors. Instead, reducing the mass to 1kg will also reduce the Kinetic energy of the impact. The kinetic energy would be quickly lost in friction with the outer atmosphere, and the asteroid (which would be much less dense than helium) would then float with neutral boyancy: something that would be pretty funny! 92.238.26.192 17:46, 4 September 2026 (UTC)
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