Aerobraking Wizard

Data displayed here show the progress of Mars Odyssey's aerobraking - the repeated dips into Mars' atmosphere that are slowing the spacecraft, lowering its altitude and circularizing its orbit.

The center column shows the current day of year, hour, minutes and seconds in both Universal Time Clock (UTC) and Pacific time (PST or PDT). It is refreshed every minute. Also shown is the number of the orbit Odyssey is currently flying around Mars, its altitude and speed relative to Mars, and period of time it takes for the spacecraft to complete its current orbit.

Columns to the left and right show the orbit number, date, time and altitude of the spacecraft's next periapsis, or its closest pass of Mars (left), and apoapsis, or most distant point from Mars (right). The column to the left also displays the "next orbit period" - the length of time it will take for Odyssey to complete its next orbit.