Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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 60,000 years (57,617 BC). The record minimum distance between Earth and Mars in 2729 will stand at 55.65 million km.
Average distance from the Sun — Earth: 1.00 — Average distance of Earth's orbit from the Sun (sunlight travels for 8 minutes and 19 seconds before reaching Earth) — Mars: 1.52 — Average distance from the Sun — Jupiter: 5.2 — Average distance from the Sun — Light-hour: 7.2 — Distance light travels in one hour — Saturn: 9.5 ...
On both Earth and Mars, these two precessions are in opposite directions, and therefore add, to make the precession cycle between the tropical and anomalistic years 21,000 years on Earth and 29,700 Martian years (55,900 Earth years) on Mars. As on Earth, the period of rotation of Mars (the length of its day) is slowing down.
The gravitational constant GM (μ) for Mars has the value of 42 830 km 3 s −2, its equatorial radius is 3 389.50 km and the known rotational period (T) of the planet is 1.025 956 76 Earth days (88 642.66 s). Using these values, Mars' orbital altitude is equal to 17 039 km. [73]
Animation of InSight 's trajectory InSight · Earth · Mars Mars launch windows and distance from Earth In the context of spaceflight, launch period is the collection of days, and launch window is the time period on a given day, during which a particular rocket must be launched in order to reach its intended target.
A Martian year is 1.8808 Earth years, so Mars makes eight orbits of the Sun in about the same time as Earth makes 15. Cycler trajectories between Earth and Mars occur in whole-number multiples of the synodic period between the two planets, which is about 2.135 Earth years. [ 3 ]
Transits of Earth from Mars usually occur in pairs, with one following the other after 79 years; rarely, there are three in the series. The transits also follow a 284-year cycle, occurring at intervals of 100.5, 79, 25.5, and 79 years; a transit falling on a particular date is usually followed by another transit 284 years later.
Artist's rendition of Mars Express as seen by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor Image of Mars Express in orbit at Mars. 2001 Mars Odyssey was launched April 7, 2001 on a Delta II rocket and currently holds the record for the longest-surviving continually active spacecraft in orbit around a planet other than Earth at 23 years, 3 months and 28 days.