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<blockquote data-quote="tomBitonti" data-source="post: 7488149" data-attributes="member: 13107">This seems to be both agreeing and disagreeing: In the earth centric frame, the push is perpendicular to the motion of the asteroid in that frame.&nbsp; That same push, when transormed into a sun centered frame, can be as you say, mostly speeding up or slowing down the asteroid, and just a little to the side, depending on the relative motions of the earth and of the asteroid.The reason for using an earth centered frame of reference is that the problem and the resulting maths are much simpler.A theme here which is important is that there is no special (“distinguished”) frame of reference.&nbsp; Just more and less natural and more and less useful ones.In this problem, in the Earth frame of reference, is seems much simpler to find the most efficient push to give to the asteroid.&nbsp; Once that most efficient push is determined, it’s simple to transform to other frames of interest, say, a sun centered frame, or a frame that moves with the asteroid.Thx!TomB</blockquote>

[QUOTE="tomBitonti, post: 7488149, member: 13107"] This seems to be both agreeing and disagreeing: In the earth centric frame, the push is perpendicular to the motion of the asteroid in that frame. That same push, when transormed into a sun centered frame, can be as you say, mostly speeding up or slowing down the asteroid, and just a little to the side, depending on the relative motions of the earth and of the asteroid. The reason for using an earth centered frame of reference is that the problem and the resulting maths are much simpler. A theme here which is important is that there is [b]no[/b] special (“distinguished”) frame of reference. Just more and less natural and more and less useful ones. In this problem, in the Earth frame of reference, is seems much simpler to find the most efficient push to give to the asteroid. Once that most efficient push is determined, it’s simple to transform to other frames of interest, say, a sun centered frame, or a frame that moves with the asteroid. Thx! TomB [/QUOTE]

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