Sun Planets and Moons ID: 3787

ARTEMIS at Lagrange

Visualizations by Tom Bridgman Released on October 27, 2010

This visualization is built from the components of ARTEMIS Mission with emphasis on the maneuvers of the two ARTEMIS spacecraft (red=ARTEMIS-1, green=ARTEMIS-2) around the lunar Lagrange Points L1 and L2.

As with the ARTEMIS Mission visual, we show the Earth, the Earth's magnetosphere, the Moon and Sun, with the direction of the Sun from the Earth indicated by the yellow arrow.

In this version, the satellite trails are are constructed in a lunar-centric inertial coordinate system so the trails reveal the motion of the satellites relative to the Lagrange points in INERTIAL space (fixed with the distant stars). To see another example of how coordinate systems dramatically affect the construction of trails, see LRO in Earth Centered and Moon Centered Coordinates.

In this movie, the camera starts above the Moon's orbital plane and then slowly moves towards the Moon's orbital plane to get a better sense of the motion in 3-D space. For a different perspective, see ARTEMIS at Lagrange: The View from Above.

A more oblique view of ARTEMIS-1 orbiting L2 and ARTEMIS-2 orbiting L1. The Earth's magnetosphere is to the left.

As the camera moves close to the Moon's orbital plane, we see that the two spacecraft are executing their motions in all three spatial dimensions, This is because the coordinate system of the trails has a fixed orientation with the distant stars (inertial space).

Visualization Credits

Tom Bridgman (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Lead Animator
Scott Wiessinger (UMBC): Video Editor
Scott Wiessinger (UMBC): Producer
Vassilis Angelopoulos (University of California at Berkeley): Scientist
David G. Sibeck (NASA/GSFC): Scientist
Jeffrey Hayes (NASA/HQ): Scientist

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