NASA Spacecrafts Get Ready For Comet Coming Close To Mars
- 10 years ago
A comet is approaching Mars, and NASA is being forced to move their spacecrafts which are orbiting our neighboring red planet. There are currently two NASA orbiters observing Mars, and a third is expected to arrive about a month before experts predict the comet will be passing by.
A comet is approaching Mars, and NASA is being forced to move their spacecrafts which are orbiting our neighboring red planet.
There are currently two NASA orbiters observing Mars, and a third is expected to arrive about a month before experts predict the comet will be passing by.
According to simulations of the comet’s trajectory, the nucleus will come within about 82 thousand miles of Mars.
But debris flying off of the comet, like dust particles in vaporizing ice, traveling at an estimated 35 miles a second could cause serious damage to the orbiting spacecrafts.
Rich Zurek, chief scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California is quoted as saying: "Using constraints provided by Earth-based observations, the modeling results indicate that the hazard is not as great as first anticipated. Mars will be right at the edge of the debris cloud, so it might encounter some of the particles, or it might not."
Either way, NASA scientists are trying to make sure that the three orbiters, which include the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Odyssey, and the MAVEN are all positioned on the other side of the planet by the time the comet passes by.
A comet is approaching Mars, and NASA is being forced to move their spacecrafts which are orbiting our neighboring red planet.
There are currently two NASA orbiters observing Mars, and a third is expected to arrive about a month before experts predict the comet will be passing by.
According to simulations of the comet’s trajectory, the nucleus will come within about 82 thousand miles of Mars.
But debris flying off of the comet, like dust particles in vaporizing ice, traveling at an estimated 35 miles a second could cause serious damage to the orbiting spacecrafts.
Rich Zurek, chief scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California is quoted as saying: "Using constraints provided by Earth-based observations, the modeling results indicate that the hazard is not as great as first anticipated. Mars will be right at the edge of the debris cloud, so it might encounter some of the particles, or it might not."
Either way, NASA scientists are trying to make sure that the three orbiters, which include the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Odyssey, and the MAVEN are all positioned on the other side of the planet by the time the comet passes by.