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Time tag for navigation data: 15 December 1997, 12:00:00 PST |
New - Detailed History of Orbital Parameters
Surveyor was launched on 7 November 1996 at 12:00:50 EST. The spaecraft is currently in an orbit around Mars. Currently, radio signals sent from Surveyor take 17 minutes, 19 seconds to reach Earth.
| Distance from Earth | 311.66 million kilometers |
| Earth Relative Velocity | 49.45 km per second |
| Declination | -21.74 degrees |
| Right Ascention | 300.50 degrees |
| Distance from Sun | 207.20 million kilometers |
| Sun Relative Velocity | 26.44 km per second |
Capture Orbit Information
The following table contains osculating orbital elements as measured at the first apoapsis (high point of the orbit) after Mars orbit insertion.
Epoch
9/12/97 23:58:53.4 UTC (JD 2450704.499229)
Coordinate Frame
Mars Mean Equator of Date (plane)
IAU Vector of Epoch J2000 (X-axis)
| Semi-major Axis | 30531.953 km |
| Period | 44.9928 hours |
| Eccentricity | 0.880473 |
| True Anomaly | 180 deg. |
| Mean Anomaly | 180 deg. |
| Long. Ascn. Node | -40.506 deg. |
| Arg. of Pericenter | 148.568 deg. |
| Inclination | 93.259 deg. |
| Apopasis Radius | 57414.5 km |
| Apoapsis Velocity | 0.298599 km/s |
| Periapsis Radius | 3651.4 km |
| Periapsis Velocity | 4.696989 km/s |
Related Quantities
The following parameters are relevant to the generation of the orbital elements
listed above.
| GM Mars | 42828.314 km^3/s^2 |
| GM Sun | 132712440018 km^3/s^2 |
| Mars Equatorial Radius | 3394.5 x 3399.2 km |
| Mars Polar Radius | 3376.1 km |