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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 ...
The lowest energy transfer to Mars is a Hohmann transfer orbit, which would involve a roughly 9-month travel time from Earth to Mars, about 500 days (16 mo) [citation needed] at Mars to wait for the transfer window to Earth, and a travel time of about 9 months to return to Earth. [9] [10] This would be a 34-month trip.
See Weight for detail of mass/weight distinction and conversion. Avoirdupois is a system of mass based on a pound of 16 ounces, while Troy weight is the system of mass where 12 troy ounces equals one troy pound.
Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 astronaut and the second person to set foot on the moon, may be 87, but he's keeping his mind focused on the next space frontier. For decades now, he's thought about how to ...
Mars is less dense than Earth, having about 15% of Earth's volume and 11% of Earth's mass, resulting in about 38% of Earth's surface gravity. Mars is the only presently known example of a desert planet , a rocky planet with a surface akin to that of Earth's hot deserts.
In The Martian, by Andy Weir, the spaceship Hermes uses a constant thrust ion engine to transport astronauts between Earth and Mars. In Project Hail Mary, also by Weir, the protagonist's spaceship uses a constant 1.5 g acceleration spin drive to travel between the Solar System, Tau Ceti and 40 Eridani.
The corresponding values for Earth are currently 23 h 56 m 4.0916 s and 24 h 00 m 00.002 s, respectively, which yields a conversion factor of 1.027 491 2517 Earth days/sol: thus, Mars's solar day is only about 2.75% longer than Earth's; approximately 73 sols pass for every 75 Earth days.
This system is also much more precise: while the Mars Exploration Rovers could have landed anywhere within their respective 93-mile by 12-mile (150 by 20 kilometer) landing ellipses, Mars Science Laboratory landed within a 12-mile (20-kilometer) ellipse. [7] Mars 2020 has even more precise system, and landing ellipse of 7.7 by 6.6 km. [8]