Tag Archives: aerobraking

MAVEN webinar: Getting cozy with Mars

Posted on June 28, 2019 by rburnham

The MAVEN spacecraft has successfully completed an aerobraking campaign, lowering the highest altitude of the satellite’s orbit to better transmit data from present and future Martian rovers and landers, while continuing its observations of the Martian atmosphere. In this MAVEN … Continue reading →

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MAVEN: Aerobraking to lower the orbit

Posted on March 8, 2019 by rburnham

The MAVEN spacecraft today [March 7] performed an aerobraking maneuver (with a 0.2 m/s ∆V) to decrease the periapsis, or lowest, altitude by 1.2 km. MAVEN’s periapsis altitude is now 125.5 km above the surface of Mars and the apoapsis, … Continue reading →

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MAVEN: Shrinking its orbit to prepare for Mars 2020 rover

Posted on February 11, 2019 by rburnham

The 4-year-old atmosphere-sniffing MAVEN mission is embarking on a new campaign today to tighten its orbit around Mars. The operation will reduce the highest point of the MAVEN spacecraft’s elliptical orbit from 3,850 to 2,800 miles (6,200 to 4,500 kilometers) … Continue reading →

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Trace Gas Orbiter: Aerobraking down, down

Posted on February 2, 2018 by rburnham

Spacecraft Operations Engineer Armelle Hubault, working on the ExoMars TGO flight control team, reports: This graphic (above) gives a very concise visualisation of the fantastic progress we’ve made with aerobraking to date. It was coded by my ExoMars TGO colleague … Continue reading →

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Trace Gas Orbiter: Crossing Phobos’ orbit while aerobraking

Posted on November 16, 2017 by rburnham

[Editor’s note: See update.] Here are the facts about the Phobos orbit crossing today [November 16]. The orbit crossing is not a Phobos flyby. In fact, we did our best to ensure that Phobos would be at the farthest possible … Continue reading →

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ExoMars aerobraking becomes too severe; shifts automatically to higher orbit

Posted on October 20, 2017 by rburnham

ExoMars has successfully performed a Flux Reduction Manoeuvre (FRM) for the first time. The manoeuvre was triggered by the excessive density of Mars’ atmosphere, which had slowed the spacecraft above the limit the operations team normally allows. The manoeuvre happened … Continue reading →

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ExoMars TGO: Aerobraking restarts in September

Posted on August 28, 2017 by rburnham

After an approximately 11-week pause due to Mars conjunction and a major software update, ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) will restart its aerobraking campaign in September. Aerobraking, you’ll recall, is the year-long campaign being conducted by TGO using the … Continue reading →

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Trace Gas Orbiter: Aerobraking suspended

Posted on June 28, 2017 by rburnham

On 25 June, the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) will suspend its aerobraking campaign until the end of August due to Mars’ conjunction with the Sun. With Mars behind the Sun, TGO’s communication with Earth will be difficult, and so the spacecraft orbit … Continue reading →

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ExoMars: TGO aerobraking, ‘So far, so good’

Posted on March 24, 2017 by rburnham

Aerobraking progress as of 22 March: To date, periapsis passage speed reduced by 33 cm/sec Still to go: 99,967 cm/sec There’s news from the ExoMars/TGO mission control team at ESOC following the first ten days of the ‘walk-in’ to aerobraking, … Continue reading →

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