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Mars comes closer to Earth more than any other planet save Venus at its nearest—56 million km is the closest distance between Mars and Earth, whereas the closest Venus comes to Earth is 40 million km. Mars comes closest to Earth every other year, around the time of its opposition, when Earth is sweeping between the Sun and Mars. Extra-close ...
Mars sky at sunset, as imaged by Mars Pathfinder (June, 1999). Mars sky at sunset, as imaged by the Spirit rover (May, 2005). Mars sky at sunset, as imaged by the Curiosity rover (February 2013; Sun simulated by artist). The seasonal lag on Mars is no more than a couple of days, [1] due to its lack of large bodies of
Rotation and Interior Structure Experiment (RISE) is a radio science experiment onboard InSight Mars lander that will use the spacecraft communication system to provide precise measurements of Mars' rotation and wobble. RISE precisely tracks the location of the lander to measure how much Mars's axis wobbles as it orbits the Sun.
Several factors make placing a spacecraft into an areostationary orbit more difficult than a geostationary orbit. Since the areostationary orbit lies between Mars's two natural satellites, Phobos (semi-major axis: 9,376 km) and Deimos (semi-major axis: 23,463 km), any satellites in the orbit will suffer increased orbital station keeping costs due to unwanted orbital resonance effects.
[6] [7] For each Earth–Mars cycler that is not a multiple of seven synodic periods, an outbound cycler intersects Mars on the way out from Earth while an inbound cycler intersects Mars on the way in to Earth. The only difference in these trajectories is the date in the synodic period in which the vehicle is launched from Earth.
An areosynchronous orbit that is equatorial (in the same plane as the equator of Mars), circular, and prograde (rotating about Mars's axis in the same direction as the planet's surface) is known as an areostationary orbit (AEO). To an observer on the surface of Mars, the position of a satellite in AEO would appear to be fixed in a constant ...
If you catch yourself looking up at the night sky this evening, you might notice what looks like a bright star with an orange tint. That's actually the planet Mars. Here's HLN: 'The planet is ...
The inclination is one of the six orbital elements describing the shape and orientation of a celestial orbit.It is the angle between the orbital plane and the plane of reference, normally stated in degrees.