Re:India Loses Contact with Probe Just as It Prepares to Lan...
by ncmncm on Monday September 09, 2019 @02:30PM
(#20920905)
The orbiter got into a polar orbit simply by being in the right place when the moon swept in at 1100 mph and snapped it up.
It ended up in a very eccentric polar orbit with its axis pointing at Earth, swinging way out to the left as viewed from Earth. It spent the next week circularizing, after which it was in a nearly circular polar orbit but, because the moon is swinging around, the axis pointed along the moon's orbital path, such that only half of its orbit was in view of (and in radio contact) with Earth. A few days after that it (or, rather, the moon) had swung around enough to put the orbiter in line of sight to Earth for most of its orbit very close to the moon.
It ended up in a very eccentric polar orbit with its axis pointing at Earth, swinging way out to the left as viewed from Earth. It spent the next week circularizing, after which it was in a nearly circular polar orbit but, because the moon is swinging around, the axis pointed along the moon's orbital path, such that only half of its orbit was in view of (and in radio contact) with Earth. A few days after that it (or, rather, the moon) had swung around enough to put the orbiter in line of sight to Earth for most of its orbit very close to the moon.