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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.
Deimos (/ ˈ d aɪ m ə s /; systematic designation: Mars II) [11] is the smaller and outer of the two natural satellites of Mars, the other being Phobos. Deimos has a mean radius of 6.2 km (3.9 mi) and takes 30.3 hours to orbit Mars. [5] Deimos is 23,460 km (14,580 mi) from Mars, much farther than Mars's other moon, Phobos. [12]
Mars without (on left) and with a global dust storm in July 2001 (on right), including different visible water ice cloud covers, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. Mars has the largest dust storms in the Solar System, reaching speeds of over 160 km/h (100 mph). These can vary from a storm over a small area, to gigantic storms that cover the ...
Mars has an orbit with a semimajor axis of 1.524 astronomical units (228 million km) (12.673 light minutes), and an eccentricity of 0.0934. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] The planet orbits the Sun in 687 days [ 3 ] and travels 9.55 AU in doing so, [ 4 ] making the average orbital speed 24 km/s.
An animation showing a low eccentricity orbit (near-circle, in red), and a high eccentricity orbit (ellipse, in purple). In celestial mechanics, an orbit (also known as orbital revolution) is the curved trajectory of an object [1] such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an object or position in space such ...
where G is the universal constant of gravitation (commonly taken as G = 6.674 × 10 −11 m 3 kg −1 s −2), [10] M is the mass of Mars (most updated value: 6.41693 × 10 23 kg), [11] m is the mass of the satellite, r is the distance between Mars and the satellite, and is the angular velocity of the satellite, which is also equivalent to (T ...
Mars is a rocky planet, like Earth, that formed around the same time, yet with only half the diameter of Earth, and a thin atmosphere; it has a cold and desert-like surface. [10] One way the surface of Mars has been categorized, is by thirty "quadrangles", with each quadrangle named for a prominent physiographic feature within that quadrangle.
About 30 minutes prior to entry, the cruise stage and entry capsule separated. [4] When the capsule hit the atmosphere it decelerated from about 7.3 km/s to 0.4 km/s (16,330 mph to 900 mph) over three minutes. [4] As it descended the parachute opened to slow it down further, and soon after the heat shield was released. [4]