|
 |
 advertisement
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Mars Gets a Weather Satellite
posted: 06:16 pm ET
22 September 1999
|
Spacecraft controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's mission control in Pasadena, CalifThe Mars ClimateOrbiter arrives at the red planet September 23 to begin a 2-year mappingand weather-observation mission. Initially, it will enter a highly ellipticalorbit that will send the spacecraft at a grazing angle through the thinMartian atmosphere to gradually slow it down. This maneuver, called aerobraking,is designed to conserve propellant that would otherwise be needed to reducethe orbiter's speed before entering Martian orbit.The Mars Climate Orbiteris the latest in a decades-long parade of probesaimed at Mars. "With the space age, we learned very quickly that theplanet was not as it had been described," says Roger Launius, NASA's chiefhistorian. Scientists are hoping this mission will be more successful thanthe MarsObserver, which lost contact with controllers three days before reachingMars in 1993. Controllers at the Jet PropulsionLaboratory's mission control in Pasadena, California have been fine-tuningthe Climate Orbiter's path so it will come within 10 to 20 miles ofits target destination after a voyage of some 416 million miles. Controllershave used the adjustment maneuvers to gauge how the spacecraft reacts tofirings of its eight small positioning thrusters.Even before its arrival atMars, the spacecraft has begun sending back images,taken en route as part of the procedure to test the on-boardcameras. The orbiter's first assignmentwill begin a few months after it arrives, when the MarsPolar Lander touches down near the Martian south pole December 3. TheClimate Orbiter will relay data and communications to and from Earth duringthe several weeks the Lander is active. Then the orbiter will start a two-yearmapping and climate-observation mission. Clickhere to go to space.com's Mars page
|
|
|
|
|
