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apoapsis

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apoapsis

[¦ap·ō¦ap·səs]
(astronomy)
The point in an orbit farthest from the center of attraction.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
References in periodicals archive
Reducing apoapsis about 1,480 kilometers (1,000 miles) closer to the surface allows the MAVEN orbiter to circle Mars more frequently--6.6 orbits per Earth day versus 5.3 previously--and communicate with the Mars rovers more frequently.
NASA Spacecraft moves closer to Mars
In particular, the semi-major axis of Ganymede (1.595 [R.sub.Eu]) almost matches the apoapsis radius of the nominal 3: 2 orbit (1.621 [R.sub.Eu]).
Preliminary Capture Trajectory Design for Europa Tomography Probe
Using this system, we can maximize directly any orbital elements or any other dynamical orbital parameters such as, the radius of periapsis and apoapsis. For example, if the radius of apoapsis, [r.sub.A] = a(1 + e) is differentiated, we obtain
Some new locally optimal control laws for sailcraft dynamics in heliocentric orbits
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