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Odyssey Orbit -vocabulary



PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu writes:
I think peri (gee, helion, etc.) is the same prefix as in peripatetic.
Whatever, it serves as a gnomonic for me.

I have thought of perihelion,perigee as the near point in the orbit around
sun and earth respectively and aphelon and apogee as the far point. In the
reference Dr Woolf recommended ( I had seen before) it says this:

The main aerobraking phase begins once the point of the spacecraft's
closest approach to the planet has been lowered to within about 100
kilometers (about 60 miles) above the Martian surface. (That point is
known as the orbit's "periapsis"

I had never heard of periapsis and coind peri-martian. Sorru for the
confusion.

Ken Fox