Full orbit: How an astronaut will view Mars from orbit - the animation

This animation was generated by Celestia simulation software to show the orbital path of Mars Express during the 8194th orbit on 27 May 2010 between 02:00 and 09:00 UTC (04:00-11:00 CEST). This animation shows how Mars Express travelled around the Red Planet while the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) snapped individual still images every minute, which have been used to generate a separate time-compressed video. This simulation shows the timeline of the orbit at top-right of the image and the red line shows the path of Mars Express as it orbits Mars. Inset at bottom-left is the actual pointing of Mars Express, constantly turning to keep the field of view of the VMC camera pointed at the planet.

Credit: ESA - European Space Agency, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

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