[neo_followup] {MPML} Mars Perseverance astrometry

[Patrick Wiggins]

Ephemerides on JPL Horizons for the spacecraft are spot on.  I’m tracking it now.

Anyone here know if the booster is also on Horizons?  (I looked but no luck.)

Alternatively, how far and in what direction is the booster currently away from the spacecraft?

Thanks!

patrick
718

> On 30 Jul 2020, at 08:30, Bill J. Gray <pluto at projectpluto.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi folks,
> 
>   My third and last request for data on a Mars mission...
> 
>   We have nominal ephemerides for the spacecraft from JPL's
> Horizons system :
> 
> https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?horizons_news
> 
>   Observability should resemble that for Tianwen-1 and EMM;
> the objects will be in the same general area of the sky,
> reasonably easy to observe for Northern Hemispherians.  As
> with those two earlier missions,  we'll have to figure out
> where the boosters are (and any other bits that fall off)
> ourselves.
> 
>   As far as I know,  no Mars mission hardware has come back
> and been observed.  But except for the bits that stay at Mars,
> the rest is usually in an orbit where it could come back and
> be observed,  and we probably couldn't tell that it wasn't
> a rock;  the speed would resemble that of a natural object.
> For example,  if Tianwen-1 should fail for any reason,  it'll
> be quite visible from the Southern Hemisphere in July 2023.
> So your data matters.
> 
> -- Bill
> 
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