[neo_followup] {MPML} Mars Perseverance astrometry

[Patrick Wiggins]

Hi Peter,

As it happens I received an email from Markus Kempf qwith similar data and, sure enough, that’s where I found it.

And much brighter than the spacecraft.

patrick :)

> On 31 Jul 2020, at 01:15, Peter Birtwhistle <peter at birtwhistle.org.uk> wrote:
> 
> Hi Patrick,
> 
> You can put the astrometry from Bill's page https://www.projectpluto.com/pluto/mpecs/20052b.htm into FindOrb and generate an ephemeris for the booster.
> 
> For you at 718 it is currently about 33 arcmin W and 6 arcmin N of the probe.
> 
> Peter
> J95
> 
> 
> On 31/07/2020 08:03, Wiggins Patrick wrote:
>> 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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