Questions tagged [mars-orbiters]
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14
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Are there any photos of the Martian terminator from low Mars orbit?
This photo of Earth was taken from the ISS, an altitude of 211 nautical miles.
This photo of Mars was taken 71,000 kilometers above Mars (about 10 Mars diameters away).
Are there any images of the ...
4
votes
1answer
94 views
Can a Mars orbiter mass only 50 kg?
A press release
by the SatRevolution consortium says that it plans to send cubesats "as small as 50 kg" to Mars
to "conduct a variety of valuable science." So that means orbiting, not just a flyby ...
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0answers
198 views
Orbit to Orbit Transport Stage
Would it be faster or cheaper to have a lander, SSTO, and/or SpaceX Mars rocket to rendezvous connect with a more efficient engine or "transport stage" or another lander, SSTO?
When the spacecraft ...
40
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6answers
13k views
How can a Mars helicopter be autonomous if there isn't a Martian GPS?
For a drone to be autonomous, it needs something like a GPS to be able to navigate. If it doesn't have GPS, you'd have to manually control it.
Do the orbiters provide something like GPS then? I ...
36
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4answers
6k views
Why wasn't the Mars Climate Orbiter's fatal error caught prior to launch?
The Mars Climate Orbiter failed in 1999 due to:
ground-based computer software which produced output in non-SI units of pound (force)-seconds (lbf·s) instead of the SI units of newton-seconds (N·s) ...
9
votes
2answers
418 views
Is it possible to deploy “geostationary” Mars orbiter?
Hypothetical question: Are we able launch an orbiter from Earth to Mars in a way that such orbiter ends on "geostationary" position, hovering always one specific place over Mars?
My thought process ...
5
votes
1answer
1k views
What happened to the Viking 2 Orbiter?
What was the ultimate fate of the Viking 2 Orbiter? According to NASA:
The orbiter developed a leak in its propulsion system that vented its attitude control gas. It was placed in a 302 x 33176 km ...
5
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2answers
757 views
Earth->Mars: Porkchop, departure burn and orbit inclination
My goal is to get a graph "spaceport latitude"<>"delta-v to reach mars".
Using "Trajectory Optimization Tool" (Matlab one) I have successfully generated porkchop graph for Earth->Mars transfer. ...
8
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1answer
740 views
What have been India's Mars mission's benefits to science?
From Wikipedia, it seems the objective is to gain experience in Mars missions and taking some scientific observations. My question is, did ISRO scientists discover anything new from their observations?...
5
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1answer
767 views
After a trans-Mars transfer, what is the direction of the rotation of the orbit around Mars?
I'm not quite familiar with space exploration vocabulary.
For the Apollo missions, the trajectory was figure-8-shaped. Thus, the direction of rotation of the Earth orbit was opposite to the one ...
6
votes
1answer
122 views
Are NMAs (Near Mars Asteroids) common and useful for exploration?
Thousands of NEAs have been observed out of estimated 285,000 larger than 40 meters. A handful of Martian trojans have been found, but should there be more or fewer NMAs than NEAs?
NEAs can become ...
7
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2answers
582 views
Methane detection on Mars by MOM?
It's been almost a month since the ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) was put into orbit. Though it doesn't carry much scientific payload, the one most talked about is the methane sensor, which even ...
15
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2answers
2k views
Can the satellites in Martian orbit be put to use providing a rudimentary GPS system on Mars?
This website conveys the impression a rover on the Martian surface necessarily navigates by dead-reckoning. Stereo images are used to determine how far a rover has travelled; an advancement over older ...
5
votes
1answer
624 views
Is the MARPOST (Mars Piloted Orbital Station) mission still in the works?
The Russian MARPOST plan in its simplest form, to me, sounds like a great idea: Establish a manned orbital presence around Mars before deploying humans to the surface.
The Wikipedia article says that ...
