[meteorite-list] One Decade after Launch, Mars Orbiter Still Going Strong (MRO)

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4683

One Decade after Launch, Mars Orbiter Still Going Strong
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
August 10, 2015

Fast Facts:

* NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched on Aug. 12, 2005

* MRO returns more data about Mars every week than all other Mars missions 
combined and supports Mars surface missions

* It has orbited Mars 40,000 times and returned 250 terabits of data so 
far (as much data as in nearly four months of nonstop high-definition 
video)

Ten years after launch, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has revealed 
the Red Planet's diversity and activity, returning more data about Mars 
every week than all six other missions currently active there. And its 
work is far from over.

The workhorse orbiter now plays a key role in NASA's Journey to Mars planning. 
Images from the orbiter, revealing details as small as a desk, aid the 
analysis of potential landing sites for the 2016 InSight lander and Mars 
2020 rover. Data from the orbiter will also be used as part of NASA's 
newly announced process to examine and select candidate sites where humans 
will first explore the Martian surface in the 2030s.

An Atlas V rocket launched the orbiter on an early Florida morning from 
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Aug. 12, 2005, propelling it on a 
course toward Mars.

"The most crucial event after launch was orbit insertion on March 10, 
2006," said JPL's Dan Johnston, MRO project manager. "The 27-minute burn 
of the spacecraft's main engines, necessary for orbit capture, was scheduled 
for completion while the spacecraft was behind Mars, so we had to wait 
in suspense for confirmation that it went well. It did. As planned, the 
initial orbit was highly elliptical. Then we had nearly five months of 
aerobraking -- using controlled friction of more than 400 dips into the 
upper fringe of the atmosphere -- to shrink the orbit to a nearly circular 
shape."

MRO's primary science mission began in November 2006 and lasted for one 
Mars year, equivalent to about two Earth years. The orbiter has used six 
instruments to examine Mars' surface, subsurface and atmosphere. The spacecraft 
has been orbiting Mars at an altitude of about 186 miles (300 kilometers) 
above the Red Planet, passing near the north and south poles about 12 
times a day.

"Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has found evidence of diverse watery environments 
on early Mars, some more habitable than others," said the mission's project 
scientist, Rich Zurek of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. 
"MRO has discovered that Mars' south polar cap holds enough buried carbon-dioxide 
ice to double the planet's current atmosphere if it warmed. It's caught 
avalanches and dust storms in action. The spacecraft's longevity has made 
it possible to study seasonal and longer-term changes over four Martian 
years. These studies document activity such as moving dunes, freshly excavated 
impact craters -- some which expose subsurface ice -- and mysterious strips 
that darken and fade with the seasons and are best explained as brine 
flows."

Though it has already served longer than planned, the spacecraft could 
remain a cornerstone of NASA's Mars Exploration Program fleet for years 
to come.

In addition to continuing to make its own discoveries about Mars, the 
mission delivers crucial support for surface-based missions. This support 
includes communication relay service and detailed observations of candidate 
landing sites for rovers and stationary landers past, present and future.

"Ten years after launch, MRO continues full science and relay operations," 
said Kevin Gilliland, spacecraft engineer for the mission at Lockheed 
Martin Space Systems, Denver. "We've kept our operations efficient. We've 
been able to bring back an astonishing amount of science data -- more 
than 250 terabits so far. Even after more than 40,000 orbits, the mission 
remains exciting, with new challenges such as taking close-up images of 
a passing comet last year and supporting next year's InSight landing."

The InSight mission will place a lander on Mars to investigate the deep 
interior of the Red Planet for clues about the formation and evolution 
of all rocky planets, including Earth. A maneuver two weeks ago altered 
MRO's orbit, as planned, to put it in position to provide communication 
support for InSight's Sept. 28, 2016, landing.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, 
manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission 
Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin built the orbiter and collaborates 
with JPL to operate it.

More information about NASA's journey to Mars is available online at:

https://www.nasa.gov/topics/journeytomars

For more information about MRO, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/mro

http://mars.nasa.gov/mro


Media Contact

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

Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov / laura.l.cantillo at nasa.gov 

2015-264