"TEACHING PHYSICS USING THE WWW" WORKSHOP, ADV. HTML -- HTML Links

Mission to Mars!







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The Mars Global Surveyor

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MGS: News overview
MGS spacecraft schematic
Other links to learn more about MGS






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The Mars Global Surveyor mission, undertaken by NASA this past Thursday, is a perfect illustration of the physics you have been studying these past weeks. Space missions combine all the most recent advances in physics and technology: mechanics, materials sciences, electronics, computing, optics, and more.

The MGS probe will leave the (blue) Earth orbit and move along the (yellow) transfer orbit until it reaches the (red) martian orbit next fall. All this time the probe is orbiting the Sun.

Click on the orbit transfer picture on the left to see a larger image of the orbit transfer with the relevant physics data.

1. What would be the speed of the MGS probe if it were to stay in the same orbit as the Earth (the blue orbit in the picture?) Note the position of Mars as the probe starts on its journey towards it.

Once the probe reaches its destination orbit it will be shifted into an orbit around Mars (the "capture orbit" drawn in yellow.) This is the MOI (Mars Orbit Insertion) phase of the mission. Click on the MOI picture on the right to access the larger MOI picture with the relevant physics data.



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MGS: A Brief Overview, with credits to CNN...

On Thursday, 7 Nov 1996, NASA launched a 10-month, unmanned mission to Mars, the first step in a multi-spacecraft bid to determine if there is -- or ever was -- life on the fourth rock from the sun.

Global Surveyor, the first of 10 NASA probes bound for Mars the next decade, replaces one that mysteriously disappeared three years ago.

Surveyor will take 10 months to make the 470-million-mile trip and another six months to ease into a mapping orbit. Later, it will dip into the Red Planet's thin atmosphere, using its wing-like solar panels as brakes.

Surveyor will study the Martian surface and atmosphere, but will not land.


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Here is a schematic of the Mars Global Surveyor, courtesy of NASA:


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Further MGS study links:

1. 2. 3. 4.

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