OBSERVATIONS OF MARS AND ITS SATELLITES BY THE MARS IMAGING CAMERA (MIC) ON PLANET-B

Citation
T. Mukai et al., OBSERVATIONS OF MARS AND ITS SATELLITES BY THE MARS IMAGING CAMERA (MIC) ON PLANET-B, EARTH PLANETS AND SPACE, 50(3), 1998, pp. 183-188
Citations number
19
Categorie Soggetti
Geosciences, Interdisciplinary
Journal title
ISSN journal
13438832
Volume
50
Issue
3
Year of publication
1998
Pages
183 - 188
Database
ISI
SICI code
1343-8832(1998)50:3<183:OOMAIS>2.0.ZU;2-C
Abstract
We present the specifications of the Mars Imaging Camera (MIC) on the Planet-B spin-stabilized spacecraft, and key scientific objectives of MIC observations. A non-sun-synchronous orbit of Planet-B with a large eccentricity of about 0.87 around Mars provides the opportunities (1) to observe the same region of Mars at various times of day and variou s solar phase angles with spatial resolution of about 60 m from a dist ance of 150 km altitude (at periapsis), and (2) to monitor changes of global atmospheric conditions on Mars near an apoapsis of 15 Mars radi i. In addition, (3) several encounters of Planet-B with each of the tw o Martian satellites are scheduled during the mission lifetime of two years from October 1999 to observe their shapes and surface structures with three color filters, centered on 450, 550, and 650 nm. (4) A sea rch for hypothetical dust rings along the orbits of two satellites wil l be tried from the forward-scattering region of sunlight.