ASTA01H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Discovery Program, Johns Hopkins University, Leeds Beckett University
Document Summary
Lecture 5: overview of the inner planets part. 1 earth fly-by, 2 venus fly-by, 3 earth fly-by (pass near a planet and pick up some of its orbital motion, can be done with a smaller amount of fuel. Objective: orbit mercury, and map the entire planet while doing so. Fate: crashed into mercury when it ran out of fuel. Created by nasa, carnegie university of washington, and the john hopkins. Passing planets does not use fuel, just escaping earth"s gravity. See above for the path of mercury. Understanding the end member of the terrestrial planets, holding clues to the questions of the formation of the solar system. Time capsule basically untouched for the past many years. How earth evolved, interacts with the sun. Spacecraft given 5-10 times more sunlight and 20 times the solar radiation. Hence, the sunshade points towards the un at all times.
