How did Nasa make Curiosity curve like that?

[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,

[maltesh]

The sun did it.

It\'s a fairly-standard Hohmann transfer. Disregarding the minor course corrections, Curiosity\'s in an elliptical orbit whose periapsis is at Earth\'s orbit and whose apoapsis is at Mars\'.

[Mr_Orion]

It\'s just an elliptical orbit, yep. Nothing special!

[Menelmacar]

Yep standard hohmann transfer - you probably do one on the way to the Mun ;P

[samstarman5]

Welcome to your first real taste at gravity in space.

[Kosmo-not]

I doesn\'t look like a Hohmann transfer to me. It looks like an intercept that uses a little more fuel to save a lot more time.

[RangerDanger75]

My two cents if you\'re still confused. A regular orbit looks just like a circle around the planet. Well you can also have elliptical orbits (which are just elongated circles). If you look at that curve, it\'s just a little less than half of an elliptical orbit. If Mars weren\'t there then the curve would keep going around until it reached it\'s starting point again.

[deadshot462]

Interesting fact: When the Curiosity rover was launched, its trajectory was aimed to miss Mars. This way, the discarded booster misses and doesn\'t contaminate Mars, then the Curiosity\'s capsule can correct its course (with its own set of small engines) to be the only part of the entire rocket that actually gets to Mars.

[Menelmacar]

That\'s cool about Curiosity - I always do that! Especially when heading for the Mun, it\'s already covered with debris.

[Dobrodav]

It seems Bi-elliptical to me.

[Nibb31]

There are no straight lines in spaceflight. You are always orbiting something.

[RangerDanger75]

Interesting fact: When the Curiosity rover was launched, its trajectory was aimed to miss Mars. This way, the discarded booster misses and doesn\'t contaminate Mars, then the Curiosity\'s capsule can correct its course (with its own set of small engines) to be the only part of the entire rocket that actually gets to Mars.

That\'s pretty interesting. I usually do the opposite, so my debris will just blow up. Not quite the same IRL =P

[VincentMcConnell]

Flying to Mars and the Moon is technically NOT a Hohmann transfer. There\'s another word for it, and Bob Braeunig referred it to me, but now I can\'t remember. Let me do a little digging.

[Daving]

Just googling transfer orbits points me to a one-tangent burn transfer. Is that the term you were looking for or something else?

Also, what\'s with this nonsense of having to fill in a captcha with each post? Isn\'t that why we have to register?

[Rich]

Also, what\'s with this nonsense of having to fill in a captcha with each post? Isn\'t that why we have to register?

This is to further prevent spam bots, when you reach 5 posts it will disappear

[VincentMcConnell]

Yeah. I forgot to comment here. I remembered the name of the term. It\'s called a 'One-Tangent Burn.'

[Khrissetti]

Wow, a surprisingly simple orbit, I usually expect RL missions to involve two or three slingshots. I reckon I could set up a shot like that!

Also, I was surprised Mercury\'s orbit is quite so eccentric (Then I remember it\'s close to 20% eccentricity and I\'m surprised I was surprised.)

[rustymcclintock]

Wow, a surprisingly simple orbit, I usually expect RL missions to involve two or three slingshots. I reckon I could set up a shot like that!

Also, I was surprised Mercury\'s orbit is quite so eccentric (Then I remember it\'s close to 20% eccentricity and I\'m surprised I was surprised.)

yo dawg I heard you like surprises, so I surprised your surprise with a surprise.

OT: interesting fact, When i first saw this it appeared as gobbledy goop, had no idea what was going on, which was unfortunate as I love space more than space core from portal 2...months later I played ksp and returned and understood exactly what what occurring. Educational video games for the WIN!

[rdfox]

Wow, a surprisingly simple orbit, I usually expect RL missions to involve two or three slingshots. I reckon I could set up a shot like that!

Slingshots are used for only two reasons:

1) To reduce total delta-V required by the gravity-assist method, allowing you to use a smaller booster for a given payload, and

To allow for multiple planetary encounters on a probe mission by having each slingshot act as a mid-course correction.

If you\'re just going for a single trip, and have plenty of delta-V, then a simple transfer orbit is quicker and easier to do. The Apollo missions used a simple (though high-speed) transfer orbit to go to the Moon, rather than attempting to use some sort of slingshot; Pluto New Horizons, to get to its destination in a reasonable timeframe, used a direct transfer orbit rather than slingshots, too. In fact, other than the Pioneer 10/11 and Voyager probes using slingshots for their 'grand tour' trajectories, the slingshot technique wasn\'t really used until the 1980s, when limited delta-V combined with ambitious missions meant that Galileo and Cassini had to use multiple inner-planet slingshots to reach Jupiter and Saturn. (New Horizons is a simple probe along the lines of Pioneer and Voyager, and with the use of an Atlas V Heavy, we had more than enough delta-V to get it there on a simple transfer--in fact, it was a direct ascent, with it being the fastest thing humans have ever put into flight, passing lunar orbital radius a mere *18 hours* after launch!)

[Lunniy Korabl]

What? New Horizons did use a slingshot... Jupiter pretty much gives away delta-v in exchange for you doing some maths to make it work. Plus there\'s the science value in making additional observations/calibrating your instruments on route to the main mission objective. It took this wonderful sequence of images from Io.

Also New Horizons isn\'t technically in a transfer orbit, that would take even longer, it\'s in an escape trajectory that will fly by Pluto on the way out of the solar system. They\'re actually hunting for another Kuiper belt object beyond pluto that they can get to with minimal course correction after the flyby to get even more bang for buck out of the probe, but so far nothing has been found.

[Yourself]

The Apollo missions used a simple (though high-speed) transfer orbit to go to the Moon, rather than attempting to use some sort of slingshot;

Apollo didn\'t use a slingshot because there\'s nothing to slingshot around to get you to the moon. Your only real choice is a straight transfer.