THEMIS Orbits: Transitions

  • Released Thursday, December 14, 2006
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Between the dayside and nightside phases of the mission, the five spacecraft will conduct orbit change maneuvers over a period of three months. During this visualization, the camera position is locked in GSE coordinates, keeping the Sun to the left. The orbital axis is actually fixed in space but appears to move due to the Earth's motion around the Sun. The dates in this visualization are based on an ephemeris assuming a launch on January 20, 2007. The satellites are represented by the colors: red=P1, green=P2, cyan=P3, blue=P4, magenta=P5.

This movie illustrates the three months of orbital maneuvers which transition the five satellites from their dayside science to nightside science configuration.

This movie is the same as above with no date stamp.

The five THEMIS spacecraft still in their dayside orbital configuration.

The five THEMIS spacecraft still in their dayside orbital configuration.

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This image is the same as above with no date stamp.

The orbital changes begin. P1 is in the first phase of raising its apogee.

The orbital changes begin. P1 is in the first phase of raising its apogee.

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This image is the same as above with no date stamp.

P1 boosts its apogee even higher.

P1 boosts its apogee even higher.

This image is the same as above with no date stamp.

This image is the same as above with no date stamp.

P5 is still in a high orbit.

P5 is still in a high orbit.

This image is the same as above with no date stamp.

This image is the same as above with no date stamp.

P5 lowers its apogee to sample the space near the Earth.

P5 lowers its apogee to sample the space near the Earth.

This image is the same as above with no date stamp.

This image is the same as above with no date stamp.

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

This page was originally published on Thursday, December 14, 2006.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:55 PM EDT.

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