4 ms·
That is when it switched from thrusters to lithobraking.
by shuntress 10y ago
That is when it switched from thrusters to lithobraking.
- Sharlin 10y agoLithobraking has actually been a feature in at least one Mars mission: the pair of impactor probes that piggybacked on NASA's unlucky Mars Polar Lander mission of 1999 [1]. The MPL itself, as is quite well known, ended up doing an unplanned lithobraking maneuver after its retrorockets shut down too soon (!) due to insufficient integration testing. The impactors were never heard of either; the exact failure mode remains unclear. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Space_2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Space_2
- dredmorbius 10y agoA proven method of matching planetary velocity.