AST 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Mariner 2, Gravity Assist, Robotic Spacecraft

• School: Tunxis Community College
• Department: Astronomy
• Course: AST 111
• Professor: Gromov

Document Summary

Flyby flies past a planet on its orbit round the sun allowing a short period of observation. Orbiter goes into orbit around a planet allowing an extended set of remote sensing observations lander/probe descends through a planet"s atmosphere and or lands on a planet"s surface. Sample return obtain a sample of a planet or other solar system object and return it to earth for detailed study. Easiest type of mission, many of the earliest planetary missions were of this type. E. g. mariner 2 mission to venus in 1962. Returned data that helped to confirm the high temperatures at the surface of. Few missions are specifically designed as flyby missions of the planets. Spacecraft can make flyby observations of other planets on their way to their final destinations, when they fly by planets for gravity assist maneuver. Spacecraft orbiting planets like jupiter or saturn can also make a series of flyby observations of their satellites.