re: Speeds and sights
I'm wondering how short can be a flight outside of the Earth-Moon system, knowing the asteroid is orbiting the Sun at a slightly different speed from Earth's.
It is still possible to orbit the Earth once every 50 days (where the Apollo 12 SIVB stage found itself several years ago)...But asteroids orbit the Sun, which means catching up, slowing down, catching the Earth again..
It is only when the asteroid will be very close that it will look more like a world than a dot. I wonder how long that would be, relative to the entire duration of the flight.