Talk:Mars Global Surveyor

Current status / Final fate
As some of you mentioned, the infobox orbital parameters were outdated (it was probably from 1997). The last operation on the spacecraft was the aerobraking maneuver of early 1999, and nothing has changed since then.

There is data available on the NASA Archives, covering the whole Mapping Phase Orbits until December 2004, so I used this to update the infobox. The periapsis is high enough not to be affected by mars' atmosphere, so the data should be relevant for many years.

(How do I sign ? My username is LazyAssed_Contender) — Preceding unsigned comment added by LazyAssed Contender (talk • contribs) 21:34, 28 November 2018 (UTC)

Orbit
Does anyone know how long the MGS took to complete one orbit of Mars? And what was the final, known tally of orbits? Could it have been 4957 orbits? HaarFager (talk) 02:28, 31 July 2017 (UTC)

Comment
cProto a technique in which the spacecraft is pitched to slow the apparent speed of the ground below. 

Final fate??
Does anyone know what has become of the physical spacecraft, has it de-orbited, will it de-orbit if so when? anyone have a clue? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 137.99.173.204 (talk) 21:34, 6 December 2009 (UTC)
 * Main article suggests it is still in near polar orbit. If the infobox "Periapsis = 171.4 km (107 mi)" is true it is well above aerobreaking heights and the orbit should last for many years. Rod57 (talk) 12:17, 15 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes, but this should be made clear in the article IMO if there's sources (why does the lede say "was"?). This German article implies that it's still in orbit but only an "approximate position" is known. --Roentgenium111 (talk) 14:35, 24 June 2015 (UTC)
 * The periapsis infobox value may well be as outdated as the apoapsis is, the last values given in the text are 120 km and 450 km, respectively...--Roentgenium111 (talk) 14:43, 24 June 2015 (UTC)

Current status
Article says it was last heard of in 'safe mode' in 2006. Anyone know what it will do when the battery fails ? When is the battery likely to fail ?

Can it maintain attitude (to keep at least one solar panel facing the sun?)? When might the attitude control fail (propellants exhausted ?) ? How much propellant remained when contact was lost ? Rod57 (talk) 12:17, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

orbital elements in infobox
Infobox says "Apoapsis 17,836 km (11,083 mi)" which seems out of date. Should that be the figure when science operations started, or the last known ? Rod57 (talk) 12:23, 15 December 2010 (UTC)
 * The orbital data were added by an IP in 2007 without giving a source and never updated. I suppose they should be removed as completely unreliable... --Roentgenium111 (talk) 14:50, 24 June 2015 (UTC)

Longevity record
suggests that until Dec 2010 MGS held the record for longest period of operation in Mars orbit. Rod57 (talk) 12:36, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

Is there anything like List of craft in Martian orbit ? Closest I can find is Mars and Exploration_of_Mars. Rod57 (talk) 12:45, 15 December 2010 (UTC)

10-year absence?
"It began the United States's return to Mars after a 10-year absence." Is this right? I think the gap was longer than that, with the previous successful mission being Viking 1 which was terminated on November 11, 1982. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.62.66.19 (talk) 11:04, 23 November 2011 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified
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Image of Mars Express taken by MGS
The in the "Other pictures" section of this article has a misleading caption "The Mars Express spacecraft image taken by Mars Global Surveyor.". The image is actually an artist's rendition of the spacecraft, intended to make it easier to recognize features in the actual image, which is much less detailed. See the last few paragraphs of this NASA article: https://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/mgs-images.html

I think it would be best to include the actual image of Mars Express taken by Mars Global Surveyor in this article rather than the artist's rendition (the latter could be linked). But if not that, then certainly the caption should be changed. 192.31.242.194 (talk) 20:06, 13 November 2017 (UTC)