hak8or

How did these guys make the orbit the way that it looks in this image? http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/images/spacecraftnow/msl_today2.jpg Did they constantly curve from the second of its launch to make it curve like that, or did they do something in space? Also, off topic but still cool,

I think I got it, though I may be wrong. 1) Write equation 2) Get rid of the denominator by multiplying everything with the reciprocal of it. 3) Distribute the Mass Ratio (I changed Mr to M so it looks cleared) 4) Subtract the product of the mass Ratio and total Initial mass from the left 5) Subtract the product of the number of needed fuel tanks so you have N on just one side 6) Now you can take out N 7) Divide and viola, you get N 8) Rewrote it to make it clearer