A photo from open sources
As the director of Martian research NASA told reporters Jim Watzin, on the eve of the mission of the Mars 2020 Mars rover, satellite MAVEN, studying the atmosphere of the Red Planet, will significantly change your orbit.
Today, the Martian module is at an altitude of 6.2 thousand kilometers above the surface of Mars and makes 5.3 Earth day flyby of the planet. Now it will decrease to 4.5 thousand kilometers and will increase overflights to 6.8 per Earth day. All this is necessary to MAVEN subsequently served as an intermediary (relay) between Land and the new Martian rover.
A photo from open sources
As shown by the satellite’s experience with the Curiosity rover, reduction of the orbit of rotation of MAVEN to the specified parameters will be optimal for the successful completion of the mission of the Mars rover Mars 2020.
The planned decrease in Martian is expected the space module will begin in the near future and will last in for several months. During this time, MAVEN will fly around Red planet at least 300 times, gradually reducing speed movement.
A photo from open sources
Recall that the MAVEN satellite in the framework of the Mars Scout project was launched in September 2014 to study the evolution of the atmosphere Red planet. As Jim Watzin specified, the module successfully completed its tasks, allowing scientists to understand how Mars lost its atmosphere, as well as many other processes. Now before MAVEN will face a new challenge, and you need to prepare for it worthily.
Mars time
