Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Update Thread

[rybanis]

Go Atlas V, you sweet booster, you.<br /><br /><br />Theres something to be said when you can use the smallest variant with no SRBs...when the Delta II had to have a full load of SRBs to do anything Mars related. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[shammylite]

Well, here we go again, T-2hrs and holding. Third time is the charm?

 

[kane007]

T minus 4 and holding for a designed 10 minute hold.

 

[nacnud]

looks like a lovely day as well, Good Luck MRO <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />

 

[kane007]

How exciting - they have the GO for launch from the launch director.

 

[kane007]

T minus 3 minutes and the clock is back ticking.

 

[kane007]

Internal power now at T minus 2 minutes.

 

[kane007]

1143 GMT (7:43 a.m. EDT)<br /><br />LIFTOFF! Liftoff of the first interplanetary Atlas 5 rocket, launching NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to take the next step in exploring our neighboring world

 

[kane007]

T Plus 2 minutes and alls well!

 

[nasa4now]

Booster sep was OK and Centaur is performing well ALt 120 miles. <br /><br />GO BABY GO!

 

[kane007]

2 minutes till meco1

 

[odysseus145]

Its the largest ever sent to Mars, though I don't know its exact specs. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[bpcooper]

Yea, it was very large at 21 by 10 feet....far larger than Odyssey or MGS. Its weight was 4800 lbs, which Delta 2 is capable of (by weight, but not the size; edit: to launch, though not necessarily that much weight out of earth orbit). <br /><br />Atlas 5 was chosen mainly for its performance. Delta 2 must have a set trajectory before launch, and only has two instantaneous launch opportunities per day. With Atlas 5, they have a two hour window and the ability to alter the trajectory after launch and before spacecraft separation...an advantage. Depending on the launch time during the window, spacecraft sep would have come at a slightly different time into the flight. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>-Ben</p> </div>

 

[john_316]

Now lets see how the Delta rocket fairs come Monday!<br /><br /><img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />

 

[holmec]

Ditto Congrats NASA!<br /><br /><img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#0000ff"><em>"SCE to AUX" - John Aaron, curiosity pays off</em></font></p> </div>

 

[mikejz]

Just wondering: What was the total data Mariner 4 <br />returned on Mars, and how long would it take MRO to transmit?

 

[franson_space]

Sounds like this can eat data. Should be good images!

 

[najab]

><i>Just wondering: What was the total data Mariner 4 returned on Mars, and how long would it take MRO to transmit?</i><p>According to the NSSDC, the Mariner 4 data is available a single CD-R. MRO is designed to be able to transmit at up to 5Mb/sec - which means it would take about 20 minutes or so for it to transmit that much data (or that little, depending on your perspective).</p>

 

[kane007]

Arrives at Mars but will take another 6 months of aerobraking to finalise its science orbit. Love to see pics start to arrive just prior to and during this.

 

[kane007]

Mariner 4 total data returned by the mission was 5.2 million bits.<br /><br />MRO has two transponders and three travelling wave tube amplifiers allowing maximum data rates of 6 megabits/sec.<br /><br />So I guess it'll take less than 1 second to relay Mariner 4's total equivalent data collection - mind blowing ah!

 

[telfrow]

<font color="yellow">Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission Status<br /><br />PASADENA, Calif., Aug. 17 (AScribe Newswire) -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched on Aug. 12, has completed one of the first tasks of its seven-month cruise to Mars, a calibration activity for the spacecraft's Mars Color Imager instrument. <br /><br /> "We have transitioned from launch mode to cruise mode, and the spacecraft continues to perform extremely well," said Dan Johnston, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter deputy mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. <br /><br /> The first and largest of four trajectory correction maneuvers scheduled before the orbiter reaches Mars is planned for Aug. 27. <br /><br /> For the calibration task on Aug. 15, the spacecraft slewed about 15 degrees to scan the camera across the positions of the Earth and Moon, then returned to the attitude it will hold for most of the cruise. Data were properly recorded onboard, downlinked to Earth and received by the Mars Color Imager team at Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. Dr. Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems, principal investigator for Mars Color Imager, said the image data are being processed and analyzed. </font><br /><br />Full update here: http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050817.155935&time=16%2011%20PDT&year=2005&public=1 <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

[shuttle_rtf]

What is the actual speed MRO is travelling at?

 

[telfrow]

<i>Calibration Image of Earth by Mars Color Imager<br />8/19/05<br /><br />Three days after the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's Aug. 12, 2005, launch, the NASA spacecraft was pointed toward Earth and the Mars Color Imager camera was powered up to acquire a suite of color and ultraviolet images of Earth and the Moon. When it gets to Mars, the Mars Color Imager's main objective will be to obtain daily global color and ultraviolet images of the planet to observe martian meteorology by documenting the occurrence of dust storms, clouds, and ozone. This camera will also observe how the martian surface changes over time, including changes in frost patterns and surface brightness caused by dust storms and dust devils. <br /><br />The purpose of acquiring an image of Earth and the Moon just three days after launch was to help the Mars Color Imager science team obtain a measure, in space, of the instrument's sensitivity, as well as to check that no contamination occurred on the camera during launch. Prior to launch, the team determined that, three days out from Earth, the planet would only be about 4.77 pixels across, and the Moon would be less than one pixel in size, as seen from the Mars Color Imager's wide-angle perspective. If the team waited any longer than three days to test the camera's performance in space, Earth would be too small to obtain meaningful results. <br /><br />The images were acquired by turning Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter toward Earth, then slewing the spacecraft so that the Earth and Moon would pass before each of the five color and two ultraviolet filters of the Mars Color Imager. The distance to Earth was about 1,170,000 kilometers (about 727,000 miles). <br /><br />This image shows a color composite view of Mars Color Imager's image of Earth. As expected, it covers only five pixels. This color view has been enlarged five times. The Sun was illuminating our planet from the left, thus only one quarter of Earth is seen from this perspective. North America was in d</i> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

I wish they could've taken the picture earlier; I like to collect nice pictures of the Earth and/or Moon taken by departing deep space probes. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> But it's still very cool! Thanks for sharing it! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[telfrow]

To me, any picture of Earth from space - even if it is less than 5 pixels wide - is awe inspiring. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>