[meteorite-list] Prolific NASA Orbiter Reaches Five-Year Mark (MRO)

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 2011 16:04:28 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201103100004.p2A04SAe015330_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

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
Received on Wed 09 Mar 2011 07:04:28 PM PST