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Extra-close oppositions of Mars happen every 15 to 17 years, when we pass between Mars and the Sun around the time of its perihelion (closest point to the Sun in orbit). The minimum distance between Earth and Mars has been declining over the years, and in 2003 the minimum distance was 55.76 million km, nearer than any such encounter in almost ...
The Mars time of noon is 12:00 which is in Earth time 12 hours and 20 minutes after midnight. For the Mars Pathfinder, Mars Exploration Rover (MER), Phoenix, and Mars Science Laboratory missions, the operations teams have worked on "Mars time", with a work schedule synchronized to the local time at the landing site on Mars, rather than the ...
After reducing the problem to the relative motion of the bodies in the plane, he defines the constant of the motion c 3 by the equation ẋ 2 + ẏ 2 = 2k 2 M/r + c 3, where M is the total mass of the two bodies and k 2 is Moulton's notation for the gravitational constant. He defines c 1, c 2, and c 4 to be other constants of the
Thus the orbital period in low orbit depends only on the density of the central body, regardless of its size. So, for the Earth as the central body (or any other spherically symmetric body with the same mean density, about 5,515 kg/m 3, [2] e.g. Mercury with 5,427 kg/m 3 and Venus with 5,243 kg/m 3) we get: T = 1.41 hours
The spacecraft would approach Mars on a hyperbolic orbit, and a final retrograde burn would slow the spacecraft enough to be captured by Mars. Friedrich Zander was one of the first to apply the patched-conics approach for astrodynamics purposes, when proposing the use of intermediary bodies' gravity for interplanetary travels, in what is known ...
Substituting the mass of Mars for M and the Martian sidereal day for T and solving for the semimajor axis yields a synchronous orbit radius of 20,428 km (12,693 mi) above the surface of the Mars equator. [3] [4] [5] Subtracting Mars's radius gives an orbital altitude of 17,032 km (10,583 mi). Two stable longitudes exist - 17.92°W and 167.83°E.
A given contour, called a porkchop curve, represents constant C 3, and the center of the porkchop the optimal minimum C 3. The orbital elements of the solution, where the fixed values are the departure date, the arrival date, and the length of the flight, were first solved mathematically in 1761 by Johann Heinrich Lambert , and the equation is ...
It takes 250 days (0.68 years) in the transit to Mars, and in the case of a free-return style abort without the use of propulsion at Mars, 1.5 years to get back to Earth, at a total delta-v requirement of 3.34 km/s. Zubrin advocates a slightly faster transfer, that takes only 180 days to Mars, but 2 years back to Earth in case of an abort.