No gravitational sling shot effect either.The LAM will be fired repeatedly, increasing the velocity and hence raising the orbit incrementally. Eventually the craft will attain escape velocity and break free from earth orbit.The advantage of this incremental method is possibility of fine tuning orbit, while correcting for any errors.
But so did the rocket overperformance help anything in this regard? Will it provide any extra mission performance, or will it simply not detract from nominal mission performance?
Quote from: sanman on 11/05/2013 10:22 amBut so did the rocket overperformance help anything in this regard? Will it provide any extra mission performance, or will it simply not detract from nominal mission performance?They timed the 4th stage burn so they exactly hit the target orbit. If there was any spare capacity due to overperformance of the 3rd stage they did not use it. For whatever reason.
There is already over a 1000 comments on the BBC article on this mission, unfortunately it has partly degenerated into that old debate of why are they being sent aid when they are launching craft to Mars. The sheer level ignorance of some postings about this project is pretty depressing.