THE MARCH TO MARS
Aug 26, 2019
2 minutes
Anatoly Zak
Challenge 1
Do that and your spacecraft will miss Mars. So, rocket scientists use a manoeuvre called a Hohmann transfer orbit to send a vehicle from a small circular orbit (say, Earth’s) to a larger one (Mars’s). The transfer orbit must be timed precisely so that when the spacecraft leaves Earth it arrives at destination orbit at the same time Mars reaches the same position. Earth It would be relatively easy for a Mars-bound vehicle to ‘stop by’ Gateway at its very high orbit at a relatively low cost in terms of propellant and velocity change.
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