Landing on an asteroid

[rov1200]

Obama has promised to land an astronaut on an asteroid by 2020. What sort of gravity are they likely to experience on the surface?

[heathfield]

Next to none.

[Davethedog]

None

[jake-the-peg]

Very little - Ceres is the largest 0.016% of Earth's mass (and hence gravity)

It's escape velocity is 500m/s that's just 223mph

http://en.wikipedia.o...es_%28dwarf_planet%29

[jake-the-peg]

To put that in context a large man would weigh about the same as 3 sheets of a4 paper

[R1Geezer]

certainly a good place to have a crack at the world high jump record!

[sddsddean]

Surely the 'Out of this world high jump record'?

[mibn2cweus]

Wikipedia lists equatorial surface gravity of Ceres at 0.028g, roughly 17% that of the Moon.
The surface gravity of a few asteroids (relative to that of the Earth) are listed here:
http://en.wikipedia.o...ystem_objects_by_mass

[rov1200]

Thanks, I wondered how they will get to land and even stay grounded.