[meteorite-list] NASA's Next Leap in Mars Exploration Ready for Launch

[Ron Baalke]

Dolores Beasley
Headquarters, Washington                August 9, 2005 
(Phone: 202/358-1753)

George Diller
Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
(Phone: 202/867-2468)

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone: 818/354-6278)

RELEASE: 05-216

NASA'S NEXT LEAP IN MARS EXPLORATION READY FOR LAUNCH

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is ready for a 
morning launch on Wednesday, Aug. 10. The MRO 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 7:54 to 
9:39 a.m. EDT, Wednesday. 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 lifts 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 (KSC), Fla.

When MRO arrives in March, it begins a half-year "aerobraking" 
process. The MRO will gradually adjust the shape of its orbit 
by using friction from carefully calculated dips into the top 
of the Martian atmosphere. MRO'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 (JPL), 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 MRO 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 KSC is responsible for 
government engineering oversight of the Atlas V, 
spacecraft/launch vehicle integration and launch day countdown 
management. 

For more information about the MRO on the Web, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/mro

For information about NASA and other agency programs on the Web, 
visit:

http:/www.nasa.gov/home/index.html

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