Planets and Moons  ID: 4192

Mars Fleet and Comet Siding Spring

This visualization shows NASA’s fleet of Mars orbiters, landers, and rovers during the planet’s close encounter with Comet Siding Spring. C/2013 A1, better known as Comet Siding Spring, will make a remarkably close pass of Mars on October 19, 2014. At closest approach, Comet Siding Spring will come within 82,000 miles of the Red Planet – just one-third of the distance from the Earth to the Moon. During the flyby, NASA will position its Mars fleet both to protect it from comet dust, and to make observations of the comet and its effects on the upper atmosphere of Mars.
 

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Visualization Credits

Greg Shirah (NASA/GSFC): Lead Animator
Ernie Wright (USRA): Animator
Dan Gallagher (USRA): Producer
David Folta (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Bruce Jakosky (LASP): Scientist
Kelly Fast (NASA/HQ): Scientist
Laurence Schuler (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Project Support
Ian Jones (ADNET Systems, Inc.): Project Support
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4192

Mission:
MAVEN: Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN

Data Used:
JPL DE421 also referred to as: DE421
Ephemeris - NASA/JPL
also referred to as: GSFC Flight Dynamics Facility Ephemeris
Ephemeris - GSFC/FDF
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

This item is part of this series:
MAVEN

Keywords:
SVS >> Comet
SVS >> HDTV
SVS >> Mars
SVS >> Orbit
SVS >> MAVEN
SVS >> Solar System >> Orbits
SVS >> Solar System >> Planets >> Moons
SVS >> Solar System >> Moons
NASA Science >> Planets and Moons