Episode 297: Fleet Arrival

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast

Spaceflight news

— Mars Hope and Tianwen-1 arrive

— Great video from Tianwen-1 as it passes its first periareion (twitter.com/AJ_FI)

— Tianwen-1 will lower to a reconnaissance/landing orbit, then two different science orbits. (twitter.com/PRCMarsRover)

— Mars Hope sent back a fantastic image (bbc.com)

Mars fleet arriving soon

— Perseverance (americaspace.com) (everydayastronaut.com)

— Ingenuity (jpl.nasa.gov) (jpl.nasa.gov) (mars.nasa.gov)

— We previously talked to Ella Atkins about autonomous robotics (theorbitalmechanics.com)

Short & Sweet

— DARPA looks into off-earth manufacturing (rocketrundown.com)

— Turkey aims for 2023 lunar landing (reuters.com)

— The Vulcan pathfinder arrives (spaceflightinsider.com)

— Doors open at Blue Origin’s New Glenn factory (HT Andy Z: twitter.com/WordsmithFL)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Andrew Z and Espen via email: SN9 violation

— Andy pointed out debris separation (6:20 and 6:23: youtube.com)

— Espen pointed us at some illuminating tweets (HT Espen: twitter.com/wapodavenport)

This week in SF history

— 22 Feb, 1990. Launch of Ariane 4 V-36/407 (thespacereview.com) (capcomespace.net)

— Next week (2/23 - 3/1) in 2002: European cars may be small…