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

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Aug 9 13:03:30 2005
Message-ID: <200508091702.j79H2U813437_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

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

-end-
Received on Tue 09 Aug 2005 01:02:30 PM PDT