QUESTION:
How do you achieve a final orbit at Mars with a certain inclination?

ANSWER from Donna Shirley on December 11, 1997:
During the MGS launch and interplanetary phase, we planned to  achieve
a near polar capture orbit or orbital inclination when the  spacecraft
arrived at Mars.  That requirement (along with others) determined  the
approach hyperbolic trajectory.  The capture orbit inclination  target
and the achieved inclination are:

                target inclination = 93.3 deg
                achieved inclination = 93.26 deg.

At present, the orbital inclination  is 93.44 deg.  This  upward drift
is due  to perturbations  caused by  Mars' gravity  field, third  body
perturbations (due  primarily due  to the  Sun) and  to some extent by
Mars' atmospheric perturbation during arobraking.

Changing  the  inclination  propulsively  is  an  option  but  it   is
expensive; we prefer to make only very small inclination changes using
the spacecraft's thrusters and propellant.

At the beginning of the MGS mapping mission, the inclination shall  be
93.0 deg.