[meteorite-list] Mars Orbiter Completes Prime Mission (MRO)

[Ron Baalke]

Dec. 11, 2008

Dwayne Brown 
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-1726 
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov 

Guy Webster 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 
818-354-6278 
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov 

RELEASE: 08-324

MARS ORBITER COMPLETES PRIME MISSION

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has completed 
its primary, two-year science phase. The spacecraft has found signs 
of a complex Martian history of climate change that produced a 
diversity of past watery environments. 

The orbiter has returned 73 terabits of science data, more than all 
earlier Mars missions combined. The spacecraft will build on this 
record as it continues to examine Mars in unprecedented detail during 
its next two-year phase of science operations. 

Among the major findings during the primary science phase is the 
revelation that the action of water on and near the surface of Mars 
occurred for hundreds of millions of years. This activity was at 
least regional and possibly global in extent, though possibly 
intermittent. The spacecraft also observed that signatures of a 
variety of watery environments, some acidic, some alkaline, increase 
the possibility that there are places on Mars that could reveal 
evidence of past life, if it ever existed. 

Since moving into position 186 miles above Mars' surface in October 
2006, the orbiter also has conducted 10,000 targeted observation 
sequences of high-priority areas. It has imaged nearly 40 percent of 
the planet at a resolution that can reveal house-sized objects in 
detail, 1 percent in enough detail to see desk-sized features. This 
survey has covered almost 60 percent of Mars in mineral mapping bands 
at stadium-size resolution. The orbiter also assembled nearly 700 
daily global weather maps, dozens of atmospheric temperature 
profiles, and hundreds of radar profiles of the subsurface and the 
interior of the polar caps. 

"These observations are now at the level of detail necessary to test 
hypotheses about when and where water has changed Mars and where 
future missions will be most productive as they search for habitable 
regions on Mars," said Richard Zurek, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter 
project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, 
Calif. 

Included in the observations are hundreds of stereo pairs used to make 
detailed topography maps and classic images in support of other Mars 
missions. One image showed the Mars rover Opportunity poised on the 
rim of Victoria Crater and another of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander 
during its descent to the surface. Orbiter data prompted the Phoenix 
team to change the spacecraft's landing site, and are being used to 
select the landing location for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, which 
is scheduled for launch in 2011. For five months of Phoenix 
operations on Mars that ended in November, the Mars Reconnaissance 
Orbiter and NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter shared the vital 
communications roles of relaying commands to the lander and data from 
Phoenix back to Earth. 

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has found repetitive layering in Mars' 
permanent polar ice caps. The patterns suggest climate change cycles 
continuing to the present. They may record possible effects of 
cyclical changes in Mars' tilt and orbit on global sunlight patterns. 
Recent climate cycles are indicated by radar detection of subsurface 
icy deposits outside the polar regions, closer to the equator, where 
near-surface ice is not permanently stable. Other results reveal 
details of ancient streambeds, atmospheric hazes and motions of 
water, along with the ever-changing weather on Mars. 

Most observations from the orbiter will be discontinued for a few 
weeks while the sun is between Earth and Mars, which will disrupt 
communications. In December, the orbiter will begin a new phase, with 
science observations continuing as Mars makes another orbit around 
the sun, which takes approximately two Earth years. 

"This spacecraft truly exemplifies the best in capabilities to support 
science and other Martian spacecraft activities," said Michael Meyer, 
lead scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters 
in Washington. "MRO has exceeded its own goals and our expectations. 
We look forward to more discoveries as we continue to look at the Red 
Planet in spectacular detail." 

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena manages the Mars 
Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, 
Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime 
contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. 

For more information about the mission, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/mro 
	
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