Gravity field of Mars from Mariner 9 tracking data

Lorell, J.; Born, George H.; Christensen, E. J.; Esposito, Pasquale; Jordan, J. F.; Laing, Philip A.; Sjogren, W. L.; Wong, S. K.; Reasenberg, R. D.; Shapiro, I. I.; Slater, Gary W.

doi:10.1016/0019-1035(73)90213-3

Cited by 52 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Generally, it is in good agreement with previously published results. For example, the large gravity high in the Tharsis region (105øW longitude) is discussed by Lorell et al [1972Lorell et al [ , 1973. There also is a high in the region above Hellas (280øW longitude), which is common to all gravity fields obtained to date.…”

Section: Mars Gravity Field Table 2 Presents a Complete Fourthdegreementioning

confidence: 96%

“…Table 3 4. Landmark-Mariner 9, orbit phase, determined from TV images of landmarks taken during the orbit phase and by using the radio-tracking data for orbit reference (by S.' M ohan) [Lorell et al, 1973]. [Null, 1969] Mariner 6 [Anderson, 1970] Mariner 9 approach [Lorell et al, 1972[Lorell et al, , 1973 Mariner 9 Table 4.…”

Section: Mars Gravity Field Table 2 Presents a Complete Fourthdegreementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Landmark-Mariner 9, orbit phase, determined from TV images of landmarks taken during the orbit phase and by using the radio-tracking data for orbit reference (by S.' M ohan) [Lorell et al, 1973]. [Null, 1969] Mariner 6 [Anderson, 1970] Mariner 9 approach [Lorell et al, 1972[Lorell et al, , 1973 Mariner 9 Table 4. Also shown are the values obtained from Mariner 4 and 6 flyby data and Mariner 9 approach Doppler and range data [Null, 1969;Anderson et al, 1970;Lorell et al, 1973;S.…”

Section: Mars Gravity Field Table 2 Presents a Complete Fourthdegreementioning

confidence: 99%

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Mars physical parameters as determined from Mariner 9 observations of the natural satellites and Doppler tracking

Born

1974

J. Geophys. Res.

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Spherical harmonic coefficients of the Mars gravity field to degree 6, mass, spin‐axis direction, and the orbits of Phobos and Deimos were determined from radio and optical data obtained by the Mariner 9 spacecraft. The optical data consist of 62 TV photographs of Phobos and Deimos. The radio data are in the form of apoapsis state vectors obtained from 195 one‐revolution fits of the Doppler data. A first‐order analytical theory was used to model the motion of both the satellites and the spacecraft. However, the resonance arising from the fact that the orbital period of Mariner 9 was very close to ½ day necessitated development of a partial second‐order theory to model the long‐period perturbations by even‐order tesseral harmonics. Results for the spherical harmonic coefficients are in good agreement with those previously published from Mariner 9 Doppler data. The value obtained for the gravitational constant of Mars (42,828.1±0.5 km3/s2) is in excellent agreement with prior determinations from Mariner flyby trajectories. The direction of Mars' rotational pole relative to the earth's mean equinox and equator of 1950 is given by α = 317.3°±0.1°, δ = 52.7°±0.1°. The longitudes for Phobos and Deimos at the time of Mariner 9 Mars orbit insertion were found to be 0.2° less and 0.3° greater, respectively, than the longitudes predicted for this epoch by A. T. Sinclair (1972) on the basis of a recent processing of earth‐based data obtained for the satellites during 1877–1969.

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Section: Mars Gravity Field Table 2 Presents a Complete Fourthdegreementioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Mars Gravity Field Table 2 Presents a Complete Fourthdegreementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mars Gravity Field Table 2 Presents a Complete Fourthdegreementioning

confidence: 99%

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Mars physical parameters as determined from Mariner 9 observations of the natural satellites and Doppler tracking

Born

1974

J. Geophys. Res.

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“…(1) also can be used to estimate the corresponding errors in radial accelerations. Kaula 6 gives a rule of thumb for the expected magnitude K n of normalized gravity coefficients, which can be extrapolated to Mars to yield (2) Previous studies of Mars 3 produce gravity field coefficients that are somewhat larger than this rule for low-degree terms but approach this estimate as the degree increases. For convenience, Eq.…”

Section: Spacecraft Forcesmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…For spherical harmonic representations, the integrations typically are performed over a number of orbital periods to emphasize secular and long-period phenomena. Such analyses have been performed by Reasenberg et al 1 and Lorell et al 2 on the Mariner 9 data. Reasenberg et al analyzed data arcs with lengths of both 19 and 38 orbits.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Spherical Harmonic Representation of the Martian Gravity Using a Short-Arc Technique

Daniels

Tolson

Gapcynski

1977

Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets

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Planetary gravity fields are determined primarily from Doppler tracking of orbiting spacecraft, which are typically in high-eccentricity orbits. Thus, the noncentral gravitational components perturb the orbit primarily in the vicinity of periapsis. To find a computationally efficient technique and to reduce the influence of unmodeled forces on the spacecraft, an analysis has been performed of the effectiveness of processing only data in the vicinity of periapsis using multiple short arcs. Although similar short-arc techniques have been utilized for Mascon studies, this analysis is based on a spherical harmonic representation of the gravity field of Mars. Mariner 9 data are processed for the study, using 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-hr arcs and estimating gravity fields from fourth through seventh degree. The resulting gravity fields are intercompared and also compared with previously published results.

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