Concept information
Preferred term
ORBITER
Definition
- A spacecraft designed to travel to a distant planet and enter into orbit about it must carry a substantial propulsive capability to decelerate it at the right moment, to achieve orbit insertion. It has to be designed to live with the fact that solar occultations will occur, wherein the planet shadows the spacecraft, cutting off any solar panels' production of electrical power and subjecting the vehicle to extreme thermal variation. Earth occultations will also occur, cutting off uplink and downlink communications with Earth. Orbiter spacecraft are carrying out the second phase of solar system exploration, following up the initial reconnaissance with in-depth study of each of the planets. (en)
Broader concept
Narrower concepts
- PIONEER VENUS (en)
Change note
- 2021-11-19 17:23:22.0 [hvtranho] Move Concepts delete broader relation (null); add broader relation (ORBITER [07eea0dc-fc62-4b0d-88ee-2813a22034da,825947] - Earth Observation Satellites [3466eed1-2fbb-49bf-ab0b-dc08731d502b,826121]);
- 2021-11-19 18:05:50.0 [hvtranho] Move Concepts delete broader relation (null); add broader relation (ORBITER [07eea0dc-fc62-4b0d-88ee-2813a22034da,825947] - Interplanetary Spacecraft [16d65a72-e685-4c98-88a9-689c5f75d358,826002]);
- 2022-03-04 15:11:16.0 [tstevens] insert Definition (id: null text: A spacecraft designed to travel to a distant planet and enter into orbit about it must carry a substantial propulsive capability to decelerate it at the right moment, to achieve orbit insertion. It has to be designed to live with the fact that solar occultations will occur, wherein the planet shadows the spacecraft, cutting off any solar panels' production of electrical power and subjecting the vehicle to extreme thermal variation. Earth occultations will also occur, cutting off uplink and downlink communications with Earth. Orbiter spacecraft are carrying out the second phase of solar system exploration, following up the initial reconnaissance with in-depth study of each of the planets. language code: en);
URI
https://gcmd.earthdata.nasa.gov/kms/concept/07eea0dc-fc62-4b0d-88ee-2813a22034da
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