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No, it's a Martian transfer orbit, albeit without Mars at the other end.
by pikchurn 9y ago
No, it's a Martian transfer orbit, albeit without Mars at the other end.
- ars 9y agoMeaning it could have reached Mars, they just chose not to?
- CobrastanJorji 9y agoYes, depending on time of year. They could probably have aimed to hit Mars, but stopping in Mars orbit would (probably) require another burn on the Mars end. Regardless, like other posts have said, they haven't actually left Earth orbit yet. There's one more burn in about 5 hours.
- bpicolo 9y agoIt would reach it if they lined up the dates, yeah. Landing something on mars just wasn't the goal here
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- pikchurn 9y agoMeaning that they didn't launch at the right time to arrive at Mars, due to where Mars is in its orbit currently. It'll pass through the imaginary circle around the sun which is Mars' orbit, it's just that Mars will at a different part of the orbit at that time. But actually, it seems they decided to just empty the tanks and get as much delta-v as possible, and it'll go all the way into the asteroid belt as a result.