Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

->Operations. . At an altitude ranging from 155 miles (250 km) to 196 miles (316 km), the MRO is now working at Mars since November 2006, from the orbit, after the probe had reached Mars' orbit in March 2006 and performed 6 months of aerobraking to reach its definitive orbit there. Due to that the images beamed back by the MRO are in enhanced colors and of an advanced scientific interest, we don't report the course of the mission there, excepted any exception. Since February 2010, students, researchers and others can view Mars maps using a new online tool to see where the MRO has taken images, make new suggestions of images to be taken and check which targets have already been suggested
. As of March 2011, the mission has provided copious information about ancient environments, ice-age-scale climate cycles and present-day changes on Mars, providing 131 terabits and counting, including more than 70,000 images, which is more than all other interplanetary missions combined. After a two-year primary science phase, two extensions, the latest beginning in 2010, have added to the bounty of science returns. More than 4 Earth years of daily global weather maps have been returned as science instruments also mapped minerals on more than three-fourths of the planet's surface. The mission also keeps providing support or com relays for other spacecraft operating at Mars and examined potential landing sites for next, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission rover Curiosity. That marks a unprecedented landmark in the exploration of the solar system as the amount of data comes too with the quality of what was learned about the Red Planet. Data are transmitted Earth at a rate of up to 6 megabits per second through the 10-foot (3-meter) dish antenna. Half the planet has been covered at a resolution of 20 ft (6 meters) per pixel, and nearly 1 percent of the planet has been observed at about 1 foot (30 centimeters) per pixel! The Italian-built radar, provided by Italy, has looked beneath the surface in 6,500 observing strips, sampling about half the planet
The most data-productive spacecraft yet at Mars swept past its 50,000th orbit by late March 2017, compiling the most sharp-eyed global coverage ever accomplished by a camera at the Red Planet at a resolution of about 20 feet (6 meters) per pixel and at that time having had covered 99.1 percent of Mars with 90,000 pictures taken by the Context Camera. No other camera ever sent to Mars has photographed so much of the planet in such high resolution. After 11 and a half years in flight, the spacecraft is healthy and remains fully functional

see a report of the MOI, as we watched it live at the JPL and the NASA TV

Mission

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), to launch in August 2005 is a multipurpose spacecraft which will advance our knowledge of Mars through detailed observation and which will examine potential landing sites for future surface missions, providing further a high-data-rate communications relay for those missions. The Mars Reconnaissance orbiter most powerful telescopic camera combined with a low orbital altitude will be able to show martian landscapes features as small as a kitchen table. The planned 25-month mission will yield an important amount of data which will be beamed back Earth at more than 10 times the rate of any previous Mars mission, using a wider antenna dish, a faster computer, and an amplifier powered by a bigger solar-cell array

It's an Atlas V two-stage launcher which will send the craft on its way to Mars, taking the opportunity of the 2005 Earth-Mars conjunction. The cruise phase and the approach phase will last during 7 months, during which the flight team will perform a series of checks and science calibrations in addition to trajectory corrections. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is to begin orbiting Mars in March 2006 after that a multi-engine burn will have slowed the craft enough to it being captured by the gravity of Mars. The mission will further fine-tune the orbit during six months, using aerobraking, that is carefully designed, repeated dips into Mars' upper atmosphere which will slow the craft. Such a choice allows to reduce the weight of the mission at launch by about 992 lbs (450 kg) of fuel

The primary science phase is scheduled to begin by November 2006 as the mission will operate during 2 Earth years (25 months exactly), which is a full Martian year. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will circle Mars every 112 minutes along a nearly circular orbit, ranging from 160 mi (255 km) over the South Pole to 200 mi (320 km) over the North Pole. The MRO takes place into the NASA "following the water" strategy which will allow to learn about Mars’ changing climate, geologic history, and potential ability to harbor life. The mission will study the climate and its seasonal and yearly changes, the weather and the atmosphere, and identify water-related landforms and other evidence for water or hydrothermal activity. It will be able to probe beneath the surface for evidence of subsurface layering, water and ice, and profile the internal structure of the polar ice caps

Features, Instruments

The 21-foot long (9.5 meters) Mars Reconnaissance orbiter is topped by a 10-foot high-gain antenna (3 m) as it spans 45 ft (13.6 m) from the tip of one solar panel to the tip of the other. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, Colo., is building the craft. Data collected by the mission will be handled by 160 Go of memory. The following table describe the six instruments which the mission will carry

click to a general (left) and technical (right) view of the MRO. pictures NASA/JPL (left) and NASA/JPL modified site "Amateur Astronomy (right)

Name	Abbreviation	Function	Manufacturer/or Supplier
High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment	(HiRISE)	imaging in unprecedented detail (smallest features: 3 ft (1 m)) 1 percent of the Mars surface	Ball Aerospace, Boulder, Colo.
Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars	(CRISM)	searching water-related minerals at a few thousand sites and over the whole planet with a lesser resolution	Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
Context Camera	(CTX)	providing wider-swath, context pictures for both previous instruments. This should allow to cover 15 percent of the Martian surface	Malin Space Science System, San Diego, Calif.
Mars Climate Sounder	(MCS)	studying the water vapor, dust and temperature of the atmosphere	JPL, Pasadena, Calif.
Mars Color Imager	(MARCI)	studying the daily changes of Martian weather and track the ozone (the less ozone, the more water)	Malin Space Science Systems
Shallow Radar	(SHARAD)	studying the underground layers down to a depth of 1/3 of mile (500 m) as well as the interior of the ice caps	Italian Space Agency (ASI)

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission is managed for NASA by JPL, a division of California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.

for more about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, see the official web site at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro

Next Missions

As far as next missions are concerned, the MRO will identify and characterize sites with the highest potential for future landers, including possible sample-collecting missions. On the other hand, it will relay the information beamed by such surface missions. The first NASA mission to use such a capability should be Phoenix, a stationary lander bound for a study of Mars' north polar region in 2008. The reconnaissance work provided by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter should be first used by the Mars Science Laboratory, a highly sophisticated rover which should be beginning to work at Mars in 2010

Technically, it's Electra, an ultra-high-frequency (UHF) radio which will relay commands from Earth to landers and return science and engineering data back to Earth using the orbiter’s more powerful direct-to-Earth telecommunications system