Johannesburg Centre, Astronomical Society of Southern Africa


Mars Global Surveyor

NASA Press Release

Mars Global Surveyor completed aerobraking at 12:11 AM PST on February 4th with a 61.9 m/s bipropellant main engine burn. The orbit is now sun synchronous, 1.97 hours in duration, inclined at 93 degrees, with a local solar mean time of 2:04 AM - all as desired. (Orbital parameters will change slight during the next few weeks until the transfer to mapping orbit maneuvers.) The Magnetometer / Electron Reflectometer has been turned on again (after having been off since January 28th to enable the sequence margins required for the aerobraking walkout of the atmosphere period). The spacecraft is in excellent health and is now in a two week long gravity calibration period in preparation for mapping operations.


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