Abstract
Orbit elements for the two Martian satellites Phobos and Deimos have been determined from 80 television photographs of the satellites taken by the imaging system of the Mariner 9 spacecraft. Phobos was found to be within 60 km of its positions predicted by recently published ephemeris theories which include a secular acceleration term in the longitude. This tends to corroborate the existence of a secular acceleration in the longitude of Phobos. Deimos was found to be within 100 km of its position predicted from Earth-based observations.
Comparison of the satellite's orbits determined from Mariner 9 data are made to these same ephemeric theories which are based on recent processing of Earth-based observations. In addition, the magnitude of periodic perturbations to the satellite orbits due to Mars' gravity field and solar gravity are discussed and a 110 km long period perturbation in the longitude of Deimos is identified.
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This paper presents one phase of research carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under NASA Contract No. NAS 7-100.
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Born, G.H., Duxbury, T.C. The motions of Phobos and Deimos from Mariner 9 TV data. Celestial Mechanics 12, 77–88 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01228626
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01228626