[FOTZeiss] Fw: Mars Orbiter Reaches Five-Year Mark (MRO)

[Glenn A. Walsh]

FYI

Also - New Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Photo Shows NASA Rover Parked Near Crater's Rim:
http://www.space.com/11085-mars-rover-opportunity-crater-photo.html

gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
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--- On Wed, 3/9/11, Ron Baalke <baalke at ZAGAMI.JPL.NASA.GOV> wrote:

> From: Ron Baalke <baalke at ZAGAMI.JPL.NASA.GOV>
> Subject: Prolific NASA Orbiter Reaches Five-Year Mark (MRO)
> To: HASTRO-L at listserv.wvu.edu
> Date: Wednesday, March 9, 2011, 7:04 PM

> http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-073 
> 
> 
> Prolific NASA Orbiter Reaches Five-Year Mark
> Jet Propulsion Laboratory
> March 09, 2011
> 
> PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's versatile Mars Reconnaissance
> Orbiter, which
> began orbiting Mars five years ago tomorrow, March 10, has
> radically
> expanded our knowledge of the Red Planet and is now working
> overtime.
> 
> The mission has provided copious information about ancient
> environments,
> ice-age-scale climate cycles and present-day changes on
> Mars.
> 
> The orbiter observes Mars' surface, subsurface and
> atmosphere in
> unprecedented detail. The spacecraft's large solar panels
> and dish
> antenna have enabled it to transmit more data to Earth --
> 131 terabits
> and counting, including more than 70,000 images -- than all
> other
> interplanetary missions combined. Yet many things had to go
> well for the
> mission to achieve these milestones.
> 
> After a seven-month journey from Earth, the spacecraft
> fired its six
> main engines for nearly 27 minutes as it approached Mars on
> March 10,
> 2006. Mars could not capture it into orbit without this
> critically timed
> maneuver to slow the spacecraft. The orbiter's intended
> path took it
> behind Mars, out of communication, during most of the
> engine burn.
> 
> "That was tense, waiting until the spacecraft came back out
> from behind
> Mars and we had contact," recalled Dan Johnston, now the
> mission's
> deputy project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
> Pasadena, Calif.
> 
> The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission met all its science
> goals in a
> two-year primary science phase. Two extensions, the latest
> beginning in
> 2010, have added to the bounty of science returns.
> 
> The mission has illuminated three very different periods of
> Mars
> history. Its observations of the heavily cratered terrains
> of Mars, the
> oldest on the planet, show that different types of ancient
> watery
> environments formed water-related minerals. Some of these
> would have
> been more favorable for life than others.
> 
> In more recent times, water appears to have cycled as a gas
> between
> polar ice deposits and lower-latitude deposits of ice and
> snow.
> Extensive layering in ice or rock probably took hundreds of
> thousands to
> millions of years to form and, like ice ages on Earth, is
> linked to
> cyclic changes in the tilt of the planet's rotation axis
> and the
> changing intensity of sunlight near the poles.
> 
> The present climate is also dynamic, with volatile carbon
> dioxide and,
> just possibly, summertime liquid water modifying gullies
> and forming new
> streaks. With observations of new craters, avalanches and
> dust storms,
> the orbiter has shown a partially frozen world, but not
> frozen in time,
> as change continues today.
> 
> In addition to its science observations, the mission
> provides support
> for other spacecraft as they land and operate on the
> surface. The
> orbiter's cameras captured the Phoenix Mars Lander as it
> parachuted to
> the surface in 2008 and monitored the atmosphere for dust
> storms that
> would affect Phoenix and the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit
> and
> Opportunity. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter augmented
> NASA's Mars
> Odyssey in performing relay functions for these missions.
> 
> JPL's Phil Varghese, project manager for the Mars
> Reconnaissance
> Orbiter, said, "The spacecraft is still in excellent
> health. After five
> years at Mars, it continues with dual capabilities for
> conducting
> science observations, monitoring the Mars environment and
> serving as a
> relay."
> 
> The orbiter has examined potential landing sites for NASA's
> Mars Science
> Laboratory mission, which will land a rover named Curiosity
> at one of
> those sites in August 2012. "We are preparing to support
> the arrival of
> the Mars Science Laboratory and the rover's surface
> operations,"
> Varghese said. "In the meantime, we will extend the science
> observations
> into a third Martian year." One Mars year lasts nearly two
> Earth years.
> 
> The orbiter's Mars Color Imager has produced more than four
> Earth years
> of daily global weather maps. More than 18,500 images from
> the High
> Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera have resolved
> features as
> small as a desk in target areas scattered around the planet
> that,
> combined, cover about as much ground as Alaska. More than
> 36,900 images
> from the Context Camera cover nearly two-thirds of the
> surface of Mars
> at a resolution that allows detection of features the size
> of large
> buildings.
> 
> The Compact Reconnaissance Spectrometer for Mars has mapped
> minerals on
> more than three-fourths of the planet's surface. The Mars
> Climate
> Sounder has monitored atmospheric temperature and aerosols
> with more
> than 59 million soundings. The Shallow Radar has checked
> for underground
> layers in more than 8,600 swaths of ground-penetrating
> observations.
> 
> "Each Mars year is unique, and additional coverage gives us
> a better
> chance to understand the nature of changes in the
> atmosphere and on the
> surface," said JPL's Rich Zurek, project scientist for the
> Mars
> Reconnaissance Orbiter. "We have already learned that Mars
> is a more
> dynamic and diverse planet than what we knew five years
> ago. We continue
> to see new things."
> 
> JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology
> in Pasadena,
> manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science
> Mission
> Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems,
> Denver, built
> the orbiter and partners with JPL in spacecraft operations.
> For more
> about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mro .
> 
> Guy Webster 818-354-6278
> Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
> guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov
> 
> Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
> NASA Headquarters, Washington
> dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov
> 
> 2011-073
>