Navigation through the Asteroid belt

[Bullo1]

How do scientists ensure that probes travelling beyond Mars avoid the asteroid belt?
How are calculations made regarding the probe's journey through the asteroid belt to ensure that they are not hit by one?!

[D H]

The asteroid belt is pretty empty. It is only full of junk in scifi movies.

[Vagn]

How do scientists ensure that probes travelling beyond Mars avoid the asteroid belt?
How are calculations made regarding the probe's journey through the asteroid belt to ensure that they are not hit by one?!

The asteroid belt is actually not particularly dense, I suspect that getting it through the space near earth is likely to be more of a hazard than getting a probe through the asteroid belt. As D H said the image of a dense asteroid belt originates in Science Fiction.

[FtlIsAwesome]

As D H said the image of a dense asteroid belt originates in Science Fiction.
Science Fiction. Fixed that for ya. There's no science in superpacked asteroid belts. A recently shattered planet or a planet's rings could have similarities to the misconception of dense asteroid groups. (Not Saturn's, they're composed of small rocks)

[Chronos]

Objects in the asteroid belt average about a million miles apart. That is why the asteroid belt does not look like a ring of saturn circling the sun. The scifi movies greatly exaggerate reality. Space is really big.