After a seven-month interplanetary cruise, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrived at Mars and executed a 1.0 km/s Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) maneuver. The post-MOI orbit was highly elliptical with a 35 hour, 428 km x 45000 km altitude orbit. To establish a useful science orbit, the navigation team used an aerobraking technique to guide the spacecraft into a 2-hour, 255 km x 320 km altitude orbit. This paper details the aerobraking navigation operation strategy and flight results. It also describes the aerobraking key requirements and navigation challenges.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Aerobraking Navigation Operation
SpaceOps 2008 ; 2008 ; Heidelberg, Germany
2008-05-12
Conference paper
No indication
English