MAVEN Aerobraking to Achieve Science and Relay Orbit
- Visualizations by:
- Kel Elkins
- Produced by:
- Dan Gallagher
- View full credits

Aerobraking plan for MAVEN. (left) Current MAVEN orbit around Mars — 6200-km highest altitude, and an orbit period of ~4.5 hours. (center) Aerobraking process — MAVEN performs a series of “deep dip” orbits approaching to within ~125 km of Mars at lowest altitude, causing drag from the atmosphere slow down the spacecraft. Over roughly three-hundred and sixty orbits spanning about two months, this slowing reduces the spacecraft’s highest altitude to ~4500 km and its orbit period to ~3.5 hours. (right) Post-aerobraking orbit, with reduced altitude and shorter orbit period.

Aerobraking plan for MAVEN. (left) Current MAVEN orbit around Mars — 6200-km highest altitude, and an orbit period of ~4.5 hours. (center) Aerobraking process — MAVEN performs a series of “deep dip” orbits approaching to within ~125 km of Mars at lowest altitude, causing drag from the atmosphere slow down the spacecraft. Over roughly three-hundred and sixty orbits spanning about two months, this slowing reduces the spacecraft’s highest altitude to ~4500 km and its orbit period to ~3.5 hours. (right) Post-aerobraking orbit, with reduced altitude and shorter orbit period. This version has no labels.
For More Information
See NASA.gov
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio
Visualizer
- Kel Elkins (USRA) [Lead]
Scientist
- Bruce Jakosky (LASP)
Engineer
- John Nagy (NASA/GSFC)
Producer
- Dan Gallagher (KBRwyle) [Lead]
Technical support
- Ian Jones (ADNET)
- Laurence Schuler (ADNET)
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Datasets used in this visualization
SPICE Ephemerides (A.K.A. SPICE Ephemerides)
Satellite and planetary ephemerides
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