[X] My Assistant

[djellison]

Initial parking orbit is good - at last we're off the ground

During ascent I suddenly thought "woh, if this doesnt work - MSL is going to suffer a lot" - and got rather nervous

Not out of the woods yet- another centaur burn to go - and actually, I was suprised to hear that the centaur put the parking orbit perigee about 6 nm off target - that's a lot. Doesnt really matter that much I'd have though - it IS only a parking orbit after all, and it'll probabyl be made up on the second burn

Doug

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[djellison]

Using orbiter I just managed an aero-capture It would rip the real MRO to pieces, but an altitude of about 40km sees me in a fairly eliptical orbit, and a altitude of 35km sees a fairly good orbit that only requries a few days of aerobraking And you get to keep 95% of your fuel

Doug

[Bob Shaw]

Using orbiter I just managed an aero-capture   It would rip the real MRO to pieces, but an altitude of about 40km sees me in a fairly eliptical orbit, and a altitude of 35km sees a fairly good orbit that only requries a few days of aerobraking   And you get to keep 95% of your fuel

Doug

Doug:

I didn't know you were on the MCO Trajectory Team!

Bob Shaw

PS Where did you put MPL?

[djellison]

PS Where did you put MPL?

Somewhere deep and dark and nasty on my E:

I found a new MFD for Orbiter called 'Encounter' - that made all of this easy. Using the scenario from just after seperation, I cruised till quite late in the mission - they needed about 5% of the fuel to re-target to 35km altitude - to slide into a fantastic orbit

Question is- which is heavier, 90% of the fuel, or a heatshield of some sort for the 1.5G deceleration? I guess once of the strange inflateables might do it - could be ejected thereafter to minimise mass for orbital trim

Doug