• The premise of a ballistic capture: a spacecraft is casually lobbed into a Mars-like orbit so that it flies ahead of the planet.
  • For ballistic capture, the spacecraft cruises a bit slower than Mars itself until the planet eventually creeps up on the spacecraft
  • Ballistic capture would be perfect for placing satellites into "areostationary" orbits—the same as geostationary, except at Mars (aka Ares).

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