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Ph.D. Seminar, Guy Marcus: “Long-term Bounded Satellite Formation Flying around Mars and the Martian Moons”

Lecturer: Guy Marcus, Ph.D. student, under the supervision of Prof. Pini Gurfil


Location: Classroom 165, ground floor, Library, Aerospace Eng., December 26, 2022
Zoom: click here
Affiliation: Department of Aerospace Engineering
Institute: Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Seminar Language: The talk will be given in English
Abstract:
The interest in the Martian system has increased over the past decades, as more studies indicate
that Mars was once habitable and may preserve subsurface lakes. Establishing long-term bounded
satellite formation flying about Mars is an important effort in the exploration of the Martian
system. In this research, we focused on the dynamics around Mars and the Martian Moons, as a
part of that effort. In this talk, we will discuss three endeavours taken for modelling and analysing
different regions in the Martian system. One region is beyond the radii of the Martian moons. This
is the first study to model the long-term dynamics in such an environment. The second region is
low Mars orbits. In this region, we focused on establishing long-term bounded satellite formation
flying around Mars. The third region is the vicinity of the Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos.
Studying the dynamics nearby the Martian moons can provide important information on the
evolution of science orbits for Martian moon exploration. In that context, we focused on finding
the exact location of the libration points adjacent to the moons – where potential exploration
spacecraft can reside in a stable position or a periodic orbit.

Comments: Light refreshments will be served before the lecture