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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Mars Orbiter to Launch August 10

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft now sits atop its Atlas V rocket ready for launch. The upcoming flight of the powerful booster is the first launch of an Atlas V for NASA.

NASA's next mission to Mars will examine the red planet in unprecedented detail from low orbit and provide more data about the intriguing planet than all previous missions combined. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and its launch vehicle are nearing final stages of preparation at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., for a launch opportunity that begins Aug. 10.

The spacecraft will examine Martian features ranging from the top of the atmosphere to underground layering. Researchers will use it to study the history and distribution of Martian water. It will also support future Mars missions by characterizing landing sites and providing a high-data-rate communications relay.

"Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is the next step in our ambitious exploration of Mars," said NASA's director, Mars Exploration Program, Science Mission Directorate, Douglas McCuistion. "We expect to use this spacecraft's eyes in the sky in coming years as our primary tools to identify and evaluate the best places for future missions to land."

The spacecraft carries six instruments for probing the atmosphere, surface and subsurface to characterize the planet and how it changed over time. One of the science payload's three cameras will be the largest-diameter telescopic camera ever sent to another planet. It will reveal rocks and layers as small as the width of an office desk. Another camera will expand the present area of high-resolution coverage by a factor of 10. A third will provide global maps of Martian weather.

The other three instruments are a spectrometer for identifying water-related minerals in patches as small as a baseball infield; a ground-penetrating radar, supplied by the Italian Space Agency, to peer beneath the surface for layers or rock, ice and, if present, water; and a radiometer to monitor atmospheric dust, water vapor and temperature.

Two additional scientific investigations will analyze the motion of the spacecraft in orbit to study the structure of the upper atmosphere and the Martian gravity field.

More here: www.physorg.com/news5671.html

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[Rocketman]

I like this picture.

[marscreeper]

Nice picture Rocket...... ;D

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

MRO Launch Delayed -
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to Launch Aug. 11

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera is examined by a worker from Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. Scheduled to launch Aug. 11 aboard an Atlas V rocket from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, HiRISE is designed to take high-resolution images of the surface of Mars from orbit provide unprecedented image quality, resolution and coverage at sub-meter scales. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will search for evidence of water, study the climate record, and identify landing sites for future missions.

The mission will lift off from Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and is the first government launch of Lockheed Martin's Atlas V launch vehicle. The orbiter will study Mars to understand the planet's water riddles and to advance the exploration of the mysterious red planet.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is ready for a morning launch on Thursday, Aug. 11. The spacecraft will arrive at Mars in March 2006 for a mission to understand the planet's water riddles and to advance the exploration of the mysterious red planet.

The mission's first launch opportunity window is 4:50 to 6:35 a.m. PDT, Thursday. If the launch is postponed, additional launch windows open daily at different times each morning through August. For trips from Earth to Mars, the planets move into good position for only a short period every 26 months. The best launch position is when Earth is about to overtake Mars in their concentric racing lanes around the Sun.

"The teams preparing this orbiter and its launch vehicle have done excellent work and kept to schedule. We have a big spacecraft loaded with advanced instruments for inspecting Mars in greater detail than any previous orbiter, and we have the first Atlas V launch vehicle to carry an interplanetary mission. A very potent and exciting combination," said NASA's Mars Exploration Program Director Doug McCuistion.

The mission will lift off from Launch Complex 41, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. It is the first government launch of Lockheed Martin's Atlas V launch vehicle. "We're ready to fly, counting down through final procedures," said Chuck Dovale, director for expendable-launch-vehicle launches at NASA Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

When the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrives in March, it begins a half-year "aerobraking" process. The spacecraft will gradually adjust the shape of its orbit by using friction from carefully calculated dips into the top of the Martian atmosphere. The mission?s primary science phase starts in November 2006.

"Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will give us several times more data about Mars than all previous missions combined," said James Graf, project manager for the mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena Calif.

Researchers will use the data to study the history and distribution of Martian water. Learning more about what has happened to the water will focus searches for possible past or present Martian life. Observations by the orbiter will also support future Mars missions by examining potential landing sites and providing a communications relay between the Martian surface and Earth.

The craft can transmit about 10 times as much data per minute as any previous Mars spacecraft. This will serve both to convey detailed observations of the Martian surface, subsurface and atmosphere by the instruments on the orbiter and enable data relay from other landers on the Martian surface to Earth. NASA plans to launch the Phoenix Mars Scout in 2007 to land on the far northern Martian surface. NASA is also developing an advanced rover, the Mars Science Laboratory, for launch in 2009.

The mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif., for the NASA Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft and is the prime contractor for the project.

NASA's Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center is responsible for government engineering oversight of the Atlas V, spacecraft/launch vehicle integration and launch day countdown management.

Source: NASA

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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Powerful Mineral Mapper Headed To Mars

Laurel MD (SPX) Aug 15, 2005
With Friday's launch of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars ­ or CRISM ­ joins the set of high-tech detectives seeking traces of water on the red planet.
Built by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), CRISM is the first visible-infrared spectrometer to fly on a NASA Mars mission.

Its primary job: look for the residue of minerals that form in the presence of water, the "fingerprints" left by evaporated hot springs, thermal vents, lakes or ponds on Mars when water could have existed on the surface.

With unprecedented clarity, CRISM will map areas on the martian surface down to house-sized scales ­ as small as 60 feet (about 18 meters) across ­ when the spacecraft is in its average orbit altitude of about 190 miles (more than 300 kilometers).

Peering through a telescope with a 4-inch (10-centimeter) aperture, and with a greater capability to map spectral variations than any similar instrument sent to another planet, CRISM will read 544 "colors" in reflected sunlight to detect minerals in the surface. Its highest resolution is about 20 times sharper than any previous look at Mars in infrared wavelengths.

The spacecraft is set to reach Mars next March, use aerobraking to circularize its orbit, and settle into its science orbit by November 2006.

More here: www.spacedaily.com/news/mars-mro-05k.html

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Hooray!...She's on her way...finally!... ;D

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Is On The Approach

This diagram illustrates the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's journey from launch to Mars. The inner circle (blue) represents Earth in orbit around the Sun (center). The green and yellow line represents the spacecraft on its way to Mars. The outer (red) circle represents Mars in orbit around the Sun. Four major stages of the mission are labeled: launch, cruise, approach and Mars orbit insertion. Also labeled are the opportunities for trajectory correction maneuvers, or chances to tweak the orbiter's path. The third trajectory correction maneuver was deemed unnecessary due to the precision of the spacecraft's current path.

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Pasadena CA (SPX) Feb 05, 2006
NASA's next martian orbiter has gotten one step closer to the red planet with the transition from cruise phase to approach phase!
"Cruise is a deceptive term - we certainly weren't playing shuffleboard," joked project manager Jim Graf. "It was a very busy time for the team. Many tests were conducted to ensure that the instruments onboard were functioning properly and our navigators performed trajectory correction maneuvers to keep us on a very precise path to Mars."

Speaking of that precision, the third of four possible course corrections was deemed unnecessary this week.

"The navigation solutions have shown a great consistency since the second trajectory correction maneuver was executed on November 18," said Han You, navigation team chief. "More importantly, the current data indicate that the spacecraft aim for insertion into Mars' orbit is well within the projected target. If the current trend continues, the spacecraft will require only a very small nudge to fine tune the final aim."

The next trajectory correction maneuver opportunity is scheduled for February 28, 2006. The orbiter will arrive at the planet on March 10, 2006.


Story here: www.marsdaily.com/reports/Mars_Reconnaissance_Orbiter_Is_On_The_Approach.html

Mission home page here: marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Two Other Mars Missions Heating Up

St. Louis MO (SPX) Mar 03, 2006
Two Mars orbiter missions - one from NASA, the other from the European Space Agency (ESA) - will open new vistas in the exploration of Mars through the use of sophisticated ground-penetrating radars, providing international researchers with the first direct clues about the Red Planet's subsurface structure.
Roger Phillips, Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences, is participating in both the Mars Express (ESA) and NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) missions by lending his expertise in radar.

Phillips says that the combination of the radars on the two missions will provide important and unique data sets that will directly map the structure of the upper portions of the interior of Mars.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (above) is poised to go into orbit around Mars in March, then spend about six months aerobraking to place the spacecraft in a low circular orbit by this fall.

Mars Express features an instrument called the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS); Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's radar instrument is called the Shallow Subsurface Radar (SHARAD). Both instruments have been built primarily by the Italian Space Agency, and, says Phillips, they are complementary.

The MRO spacecraft is now poised to go into orbit around Mars in March, and will then spend about six months aerobraking to place the spacecraft in a low circular orbit by this fall.

This will mark the start of a two-year mapping campaign that NASA calls the primary science phase.

Full story here: www.spacedaily.com/reports/Two_Other_Mars_Missions_Heating_Up.html

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Might the two invade each others space?...

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Inbound For Mars Is A Testing Time For MRO Team

Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 07, 2006
Mars plays a mean defense. The red warrior has overwhelmed nearly two-thirds of all international spacecraft that have sought its mysteries. For NASA's latest encounter with Earth's testy neighbor, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter team will be going into battle armored with discipline, training and experience.
Until Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is safely in its final science orbit, it is largely an engineering game. Like any good squad, the engineering team practices before the "big game."

"We want to make sure our team is ready," said mission operations training engineer Ruth Fragoso. "We're trying to pressure the team. We want to see how they respond. We try to get them at their weakest spots."

In an exercise with a relatively benign name – operational readiness test – the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter engineers are put through their paces in an orbit insertion simulation that Fragoso notes is "as flight-like as possible."

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter chief engineer Todd Bayer said of their recent test, "For all intents and purposes, it is real. It's our equivalent of the cockpit flight simulator for pilots that allows them to practice their proficiency. Even in these practice runs, red alarms are very real!"

All told, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter team endured 17 anomalies during their recent test; eleven of those were planned issues (officially called green cards) dreamt up by the team assembled to induce failure. Six irregularities were not intentionally thrown in, but real problems the team uncovered.

"Gotchas," as Lockheed Martin system engineer Cindy Schulz calls them, included electronics faults and a complex induced failure on a card that reads temperature data, which erroneously turned on heaters. Overheating can cause attitude control to fail, causing the spacecraft to veer dangerously off course. The team wasn’t even convinced that this failure could actually occur in reality but, alas, they learned it could and are now prepared to deal with it if it should arise.

"Operational readiness tests are where the bugs come out," Schulz noted. "We train so that these problems do come up and we can work through them."

The team has also gained invaluable knowledge about the spacecraft while it's been on its way to the red planet. Unlike Spirit and Opportunity, cocooned in their aeroshells (their protective casings), the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been in its full flight configuration since shortly after launch.

"With this spacecraft, we never had a quiet cruise to Mars," said Schulz. "We didn’t do just basic maintenance, we conducted major science and engineering calibrations to test how well the instruments were doing in space. These activities help shorten the learning curve for us when we get to Mars and start mapping."

With a matter of days until Mars orbit insertion, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter team has successfully completed dozens of preparatory tests. One final operational readiness test will serve as a real dress rehearsal.

With such a critical event approaching, engineers are reminded of the enormity of March 10. They have learned the hard way that Mars is no minor leaguer, so they’ve conditioned their star player for one of its biggest challenges


Story here: www.spacedaily.com/reports/Inbound_For_Mars_Is_A_Testing_Time_For_MRO_Team.html

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NOAA Keeps Close Watch for Solar Storms As MRO Approaches Mars

Washington DC (SPX) Mar 7, 2006
The NOAA Space Environment Center, home to the nation's early warning system for solar storms, is assisting NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission as the satellite approaches its critical orbit insertion phase. The SEC is providing daily briefings to the NASA MRO Mission Operations Assurance Group as well as providing appropriate warnings and alerts of space weather.
"This operation presents some significant challenges," said Joe Kunches, chief of the NOAA Space Environment Center's forecast and analysis branch. "The greatest issue is the fact that Mars is a long way from Earth, but more importantly, Mars is facing a different part of the sun than we Earthlings."

Currently, the SEC expects space weather conditions to be quiet, and NOAA forecasters anticipate they will stay that way through the next week. "Accurate forecasts are imperative," added Kunches.

"If the MRO were to encounter a solar radiation storm while in an operational mode that is vulnerable to an energetic proton it could cause a computer component to malfunction and the spacecraft could be lost."

Story here: www.spacedaily.com/reports/NOAA_Keeps_Close_Watch_for_Solar_Storms_As_MRO_Approaches_Mars.html

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Mars is indeed the Angry Red planet. Let's hope she makes it through.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Fast-Talking NASA Spacecraft Starts Final Approach to Mars

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has begun its final approach to the red planet after activating a sequence of commands designed to get the spacecraft successfully into orbit.

The sequence began Tuesday and will culminate with firing the craft's main thrusters for about 27 minutes on Friday -- a foot on the brakes to reduce velocity by about 20 percent as the spacecraft swings around Mars at about 5,000 meters per second (about 11,000 miles per hour). Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, are monitoring the events closely.

"We have been preparing for years for the critical events the spacecraft must execute on Friday," said JPL's Jim Graf, project manager. "By all indications, we're in great shape to succeed, but Mars has taught us never to get overconfident. Two of the last four orbiters NASA sent to Mars did not survive final approach."

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will build upon discoveries by five successful robots currently active at Mars: NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity, NASA orbiters Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey, and the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter. It will examine Mars' surface, atmosphere and underground layers in great detail from a low orbit. It will aid future missions by scouting possible landing sites and relaying communications. It will send home up to 10 times as much data per minute as any previous Mars mission.

First, it must get into orbit. The necessary thruster burn will begin shortly after 1:24 p.m. Pacific Time on Friday. Engineers designed the burn to slow the spacecraft just enough for Mars' gravity to capture it into a very elongated elliptical orbit. A half-year period of more than 500 carefully calculated dips into Mars' atmosphere -- a process called aerobraking -- will use friction with the atmosphere to gradually shrink the orbit to the size and nearly-circular shape chosen for most advantageous use of the six onboard science instruments.

"Our primary science phase won't begin until November, but we'll actually be studying the changeable structure of Mars' atmosphere by sensing the density of the atmosphere at different altitudes each time we fly through it during aerobraking," said JPL's Dr. Richard Zurek, project scientist for the mission.

Additional information about Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is available online at:

www.nasa.gov/mro

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Fasten your seatbelts...it's gonna be a bumpy ride!...

[Maddad]

Let's hope they remember to calculate their speed in meters per second this time.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Earth Sends Most Advanced Obsertvation Orbiter To Mars Yet

Washington DC (SPX) Feb 06, 2006
Tomorrow, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) will reach Mars, having traveled 300 million miles since its launch on August 12, 2005. The next portion of its journey – Mars Orbit Insertion - will be difficult, says Doug McCuistion, NASA Mars Exploration Program Director.

The orbiter will loop around the planet, firing onboard rockets to slow its speed enough to be gravitationally captured by Mars. If the attempt fails, the spacecraft could crash after dipping too low into the atmosphere, or fly right past the planet it was meant to investigate. "Orbiters seem like they might be the easiest thing to do," says McCuistion.

"But in reality, (NASA) only has about a 65 percent success rate of getting orbiters into orbit. Whereas landers, we have about an 80 percent success rate of getting them on the surface." He adds that, if you factor in the attempts made by other countries, the success rate for Mars orbiters is even lower, about 40 percent.

MRO will approach the southern pole of Mars and then fire its thrusters at 1:25 Pacific Standard Time Friday, March 10. After 21 minutes, MRO will go behind the planet and mission scientists will lose contact with the spacecraft for 30 minutes. Six minutes after this loss of contact, the rockets should stop firing automatically, having decreased the speed of the spacecraft by 18 percent.

The spacecraft should swing back around Mars and re-establish Earth contact at 2:16 pm PST. Mission scientists will need an additional 30 minutes to determine whether the spacecraft has been captured by Mars gravity.

"We're getting into the dangerous portion of the mission," says Jim Graf, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project Manager from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Now we're starting to enter into the realm where we've lost two spacecraft in the last 15 years."

If MRO does begin to orbit Mars as planned, it will take six months for the spacecraft to decrease its 35-hour, highly elongated orbit to a more circular, 2-hour one. The spacecraft will use an aerobraking technique to get into this final orbit, dragging its body against the martian atmosphere so that the resulting friction slows the spacecraft down.

If successful, MRO will join the three other spacecraft currently orbiting the Red Planet: NASA's Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) and Mars Odyssey, and the European Space Agency's Mars Express.

Story here: www.spacedaily.com/reports/Earth_Sends_Most_Advanced_Obsertvation_Orbiter_To_Mars_Yet.html
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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

NASA Orbiter Arrives at Mars

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 - Mars added a new satellite today, when NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrived at the Red Planet. The spacecraft fired its engines for 27 minutes shortly before arrival to slow it down a little, just enough so that Mars could capture it with its gravity. Over the next seven months, the spacecraft will pass through Mars' atmosphere 550 times, slowing itself down further through a process called aerobraking. After having settled into its final orbit, it will search for signs of water and scout out future landing locations.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has begun its final approach to the red planet after activating a sequence of commands designed to get the spacecraft successfully into orbit.

The sequence began Tuesday and will culminate with firing the craft's main thrusters for about 27 minutes on Friday -- a foot on the brakes to reduce velocity by about 20 percent as the spacecraft swings around Mars at about 5,000 meters per second (about 11,000 miles per hour). Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, are monitoring the events closely.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will build upon discoveries by five successful robots currently active at Mars: NASA rovers Spirit and Opportunity, NASA orbiters Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey, and the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter. It will examine Mars' surface, atmosphere and underground layers in great detail from a low orbit. It will aid future missions by scouting possible landing sites and relaying communications. It will send home up to 10 times as much data per minute as any previous Mars mission.

First, it must get into orbit. The necessary thruster burn will begin shortly after 1:24 p.m. Pacific Time on Friday. Engineers designed the burn to slow the spacecraft just enough for Mars' gravity to capture it into a very elongated elliptical orbit. A half-year period of more than 500 carefully calculated dips into Mars' atmosphere -- a process called aerobraking -- will use friction with the atmosphere to gradually shrink the orbit to the size and nearly-circular shape chosen for most advantageous use of the six onboard science instruments.

"Our primary science phase won't begin until November, but we'll actually be studying the changeable structure of Mars' atmosphere by sensing the density of the atmosphere at different altitudes each time we fly through it during aerobraking," said JPL's Dr. Richard Zurek, project scientist for the mission.

Story here: www.universetoday.com/am/publish/mro_final_approach.html?1032006

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Excellent...just excellent!! ;D

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Robotic NASA Craft Begins Orbiting Mars for Most-Detailed Exam

Date Released: Friday, March 10, 2006
Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

With a crucially timed firing of its main engines today, NASA's new mission to Mars successfully put itself into orbit around the red planet.

The spacecraft, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, will provide more science data than all previous Mars missions combined.

Signals received from the spacecraft at 2:16 p.m. Pacific Time after it emerged from its first pass behind Mars set off cheers and applause in control rooms at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.

"This is a great milestone to have accomplished, but it's just one of many milestones before we can open the champagne," said Colleen Hartman, deputy associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "Once we are in the prime science orbit, the spacecraft will perform observations of the atmosphere, surface, and subsurface of Mars in unprecedented detail."

The spacecraft traveled about 500 million kilometers (310 million miles) to reach Mars after its launch from Florida on Aug. 12, 2005. It needed to use its main thrusters as it neared the planet in order to slow itself enough for Mars' gravity to capture it. The thruster firing began while the spacecraft was still in radio contact with Earth, but needed to end during a tense half hour of radio silence while the spacecraft flew behind Mars.

"Our spacecraft has finally become an orbiter," said JPL's Jim Graf, project manager for the mission. "The celebration feels great, but it will be very brief because before we start our main science phase, we still have six months of challenging work to adjust the orbit to the right size and shape."

For the next half-year, the mission will use hundreds of carefully calculated dips into Mars' atmosphere in a process called "aerobraking." This will shrink its orbit from the elongated ellipse it is now flying, to a nearly circular two-hour orbit. For the mission's principal science phase, scheduled to begin in November, the desired orbit is a nearly circular loop ranging from 320 kilometers (199 miles) to 255 kilometers (158 miles) in altitude, lower than any previous Mars orbiter. To go directly into such an orbit instead of using aerobraking, the mission would have needed to carry about 70 percent more fuel when it launched.

The instruments on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will examine the planet from this low-altitude orbit. A spectrometer will map water-related minerals in patches as small as a baseball infield. A radar instrument will probe for underground layers of rock and water. One telescopic camera will resolve features as small as a card table. Another will put the highest-resolution images into broader context. A color camera will monitor the entire planet daily for changes in weather. A radiometer will check each layer of the atmosphere for variations in temperature, water vapor and dust.

"The missions currently at Mars have each advanced what we know about the presence and history of water on Mars, and one of the main goals for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is to decipher when water was on the surface and where it is now," said JPL's Dr. Richard Zurek, project scientist for the mission. "Water is essential for life, so that will help focus future studies of whether Mars has ever supported life."

The orbiter can radio data to Earth at up to 10 times the rate of any previous Mars mission. Besides sending home the pictures and other information from its own investigations, it will relay data from surface missions, including NASA's Phoenix Mars Scout scheduled for launch in 2007 and Mars Science Laboratory in development for 2009.


Full story here: www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=19225
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Now...let's take a closer look at that face on Mars...

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

First Images from the MRO

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 - After years of development and months of spaceflight, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is beginning to return photos of the Red Planet. The spacecraft pointed three of its cameras at the surface of Mars on Thursday, and started snapping pictures. This photo was taken when the spacecraft was at an altitude of 2,489 kilometers (1,547 miles), which is about 9 times as high as its final orbit - the pictures are going to just get better. Even so, the resolution at this altitude is about the same as the best pictures returned by other Mars orbiters.

he first test images of Mars from NASA's newest spacecraft provide a tantalizing preview of what the orbiter will reveal when its main science mission begins next fall.

Three cameras on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter were pointed at Mars at 8:36 p.m. PST Thursday, while the spacecraft collected 40 minutes of engineering test data. The cameras are the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, the Context Camera and the Mars Color Imager.

"These high-resolution images of Mars are thrilling, and unique given the early morning time-of-day. The final orbit of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will be over Mars in the mid-afternoon, like Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey," said Alfred McEwen, University of Arizona, Tucson, principal investigator for the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been flying in elongated orbits around Mars since it entered orbit on March 10. Every 35 hours, it has swung about 44,000 kilometers (27,000 miles) away from the planet then come back within about 425 kilometers (264 miles) of Mars' surface.

Mission operations teams at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif, and at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, continue preparing for aerobraking. That process will use about 550 careful dips into the atmosphere during the next seven months to shrink the orbit to a near-circular shape less than 300 kilometers (200 miles) above the ground.

To get desired groundspeeds and lighting conditions for the test images, researchers programmed the cameras to shoot while the spacecraft was flying about 2,489 kilometers (1,547 miles) or more above Mars' surface, about nine times the range planned for the orbiter's primary science mission. Even so, the highest resolution of about 2.5 meters (8 feet) per pixel – an object 8 feet in diameter would appear as a dot -- is comparable to some of the best resolution previously achieved from Mars orbit.

More than 25 gigabits of imaging data, enough to nearly fill five CD-ROMs, were received through NASA's Deep Space Network station at Canberra, Australia, and sent to JPL. They were made available to the camera teams at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif.

Full story here: www.universetoday.com/am/publish/first_mro_image.html?2432006

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I understand that the MRO has a 20" imager/telescope onboard, and that the detail will be down to 11 inches!

Excellent!

I wonder what we will find....Hmmmmm?... #wha#

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Craft Begins Adjusting Orbit

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter yesterday began a crucial six-month campaign to gradually shrink its orbit into the best geometry for the mission's science work.

Three weeks after successfully entering orbit around Mars, the spacecraft is in a phase called "aerobraking." This process uses friction with the tenuous upper atmosphere to transform a very elongated 35-hour orbit to the nearly circular two-hour orbit needed for the mission's science observations.

The orbiter has been flying about 426 kilometers (265 miles) above Mars' surface at the nearest point of each loop since March 10, then swinging more than 43,000 kilometers (27,000 miles) away before heading in again. While preparing for aerobraking, the flight team tested several instruments, obtaining the orbiter's first Mars pictures and demonstrating the ability of its Mars Climate Sounder instrument to track the atmosphere's dust, water vapor and temperatures.

On Thursday, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter fired its intermediate thrusters for 58 seconds at the far point of the orbit. That maneuver lowered its altitude to 333 kilometers (207 miles) when the spacecraft next passed the near point of its orbit, at 6:46 a.m. Pacific time today (9:46 a.m. Eastern Time).

Full story here: www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.nl.html?pid=19415

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The images should be spectacular!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Successfully Concludes Aerobraking

Nearly six months after it entered orbit, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has concluded its aerobraking phase. The spacecraft had been dipping in and out of the red planet's atmosphere to adjust its orbit. On August 30, 2006, during its 445th orbit, the spacecraft fired its intermediate thrusters to raise the low point of its orbit and stop dipping into the atmosphere. The six-minute engine burn began at 10:36 a.m. (PST), altering the spacecraft's course so that its periapsis (the closest it comes to the planet) is about 210 kilometers (130 miles) above the planet, well above the atmosphere.

The next step for the spacecraft will be two additional orbit adjustments to put the orbiter in the ideal path to begin gathering the most detailed scientific data yet from the red planet. The mission's main science observations are scheduled to begin in November, after a period of transitional deployments and tests, then three weeks of intermittent communications while Mars passes nearly behind the sun.

Source: mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/mission/orbiter_update.html

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Excellent. I'm anticipating the high resolution images from this machine...

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

HiRISE Camera Will Take First Close-Up Pictures Of Mars On Sept 29

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched August 12, 2005, will provide more science data than all previous Mars missions combined.

Tucson AZ (SPX) Sep 27, 2006
The most powerful camera ever to orbit Mars will get its first close look at the Red Planet on Friday. The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera flying aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) will relay its first low-altitude images to scientists at The University of Arizona beginning Sept. 29.

"It's exciting because it's the first time we'll see Mars while the spacecraft is orbiting at about 300 kilometers (roughly 190 miles) above the planet's surface," HiRISE principal investigator and UA Professor Alfred S. McEwen said.

The HiRISE camera is the most powerful telescopic camera ever sent to another planet. The camera took its first impressive test images of Mars when it was as far as 2,500 kilometers (roughly 1,600 miles) away from the planet last March, just before MRO began "aerobraking." Aerobraking involved sending the bus-sized spacecraft through Mars' upper atmosphere 426 times between early April and Aug. 30. The technique successfully lowered MRO close to its final science orbit. This maneuver would have required an extra 600 kilograms (1,300 pounds) of fuel if thrusters had been used.

"HiRISE's best chance for photographing candidate Phoenix mission landing sites is in October and November because the sun is getting lower as northern Mars moves into fall," McEwen said. Fogs and hazes will likely degrade viewing by early 2007, he added.

Source: www.marsdaily.com/reports/HiRISE_Camera_Will_Take_First_Close_Up_Pictures_Of_Mars_On_Sept_29_999.html

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The HiRISE camera should passby Cydonia...

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

New Mars Camera's First Image of Mars from Mapping Orbit

The high resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured its first image of Mars in the mapping orbit, demonstrating the full resolution capability, on Sept. 29, 2006. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) acquired this image at 8:16 AM (Pacific Time), and parts of the image became available to the HiRISE team at 1:30 PM. With the spacecraft at an altitude of 280 kilometers (174 miles), the image scale is 29.7 centimeters per pixel (about 12 inches per pixel).

This sub-image covers a small portion of the floor of Ius Chasma, one branch of the giant Valles Marineris system of canyons. The image illustrates a variety of processes that have shaped the Martian surface. There are bedrock exposures of layered materials, which could be sedimentary rocks deposited in water or from the air. Some of the bedrock has been faulted and folded, perhaps the result of large-scale forces in the crust or from a giant landslide. The darker unit of material at right includes many rocks. The image resolves rocks as small as small as 90 centimeters (3 feet) in diameter. At bottom right are a few dunes or ridges of windblown sand.

If a person was located on this part of Mars, he or she would just barely be visible in this image.

Source: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/mro-20060929a.html?msource=11706&tr=y&auid=2029046

and

adsfree01.mail.com/scripts/mail/read.mail?folder=INBOX&order=Newest&mview=a&mstart=1&pbox=2&msg_uid=1159588190&mprev=1159589867&mnext=1159588189

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I really anticipate the upcoming series of images from the HiRISE camera.

Just excellent...

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

MRO Takes a close up Look at Opportunity

Not only has Opportunity made it to Victoria crater, but MRO is taking pictures from above at the same time. The images from orbit are good enough to resolve the shadow of the PanCam mast on Opportunity, and the ground truth images from Opportunity are also dramatic, with more nice finely layered bedrock visible in
Victoria's walls.

For images, take a look at the current batch (press release images):

Source: marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20061006a.html

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On to Cydonia...

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Mars's top camera suffers failing eyesight

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on board Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the newest and most powerful craft to arrive at the red planet, has lost its peripheral vision. And its colour vision is fading too.

Seven of HiRISE's 14 detectors are sending back spurious data, the mission team reports, and one of the four colour detectors has stopped working completely. This has led to only a 2% loss of signal so far, which doesn't sound too bad. But the problem looks set to hit all of the detectors eventually.

"We do think it's a systematic problem for all of them," says Alfred McEwen, HiRISE's principal investigator, who is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson. "It's going to be a real irritant as it worsens."

HiRISE is famous for having provided some of our most stunning views of Mars to date, including a snap of Victoria Crater with the Mars rover Opportunity perched on its the edge (see picture). Pictures continue to be sent back from the craft, which started its scientific survey of the planet in November 2006. It was late in that same month that mission scientists first noticed problems with its eyesight.

Full story at link.

Source: www.nature.com/news/2007/070205/full/070205-15.html

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