Landings and even close orbital passes are impossible due to an advanced planetary defense system.

After we got your homing signal, before we landed, we made seven orbital passes over the entire planet.

"In the meantime, I'll have Ensign Tremaine make some orbital passes looking for power sources outside the enclaves."

The orbital pass would take it two hundred miles off the American coast.

"PSOPs are prior significant orbital passes by the satellite," Jensen explained.

Now, the side of Mars that would have been dark on each orbital pass will be sunlit, and vice versa.

However, aerobraking is typically done with many orbital passes through a higher altitude, and therefore thinner region of the atmosphere.

The second set of photos had been taken on the next orbital pass at a very low angle.

"We're already running significant numbers of orbital passes over the target areas," Emily Powell-Hill replied.

It is common for near-polar orbiting satellites to choose a sun-synchronous orbit: meaning that each successive orbital pass occurs at the same local time of day.