Mar-Bound Craft Nearing End of Journey

[Diana]

I'm sorry Dragon Star




Diana

[Dragon Star]

Better be.

Why don't you drag Teri over here?

[Diana]

I will probably let her know to see what she thinks......




Diana

[Dragon Star]

I bet she would like it.

[Diana]

Mars orbiter bears down on Red Planet

“The mission is entering a very dangerous phase for the next several days,” said Fuk Li, NASA’s Mars exploration directorate chief at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. “We’ve sent four missions that we intended to orbit Mars [in 15 years] and only two have succeeded...for us those are sobering numbers.”

Here


Diana

[Darryl]

Originally Posted by Diana

Mars orbiter bears down on Red Planet
Diana

I was just watching a NASA briefing, and the project lead manager seems confident that they have done everything correctly, and implied the mission so far, has proceeded very well. He said all the data to put the spacecraft into orbit around Mars has already been sent to the spacecraft. This briefing was done on March 8th.

Watch MRO Arrive at Mars! [NASA TV Online]
Mar 10: MRO Pre-Arrival news Briefing (9 am Pacific)
Mar 10: Live Mars Orbit Insertion Coverage (12:30 - 2:45 pm Pacific)

[Diana]

Well, fortunately the MRO sucessfully slip into orbit around Mars.

Scientist cheered after the MRO emerged from the planet's shadow and signaled to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory that the manuever was a sucess..........

As it neared the planet, it fired its main propulsion engines for 27 minutes to slow itself down so that the planet's gravity could pull it into orbit. At one point during the burn, the spacecraft disappeared behind Mars — as engineers had planned — and was temporarily out of radio contact with controllers.

Mission control was visibly tense as it awaited word from the orbiter, which reappeared and signaled that it had entered into an elliptical orbit around Mars that will swing it as close as 250 miles above the surface.

"Oh I am very relieved," project manager Jim Graf said minutes later. "It was picture perfect."

The newest orbiter is loaded with the most advanced science instruments ever sent to another planet including a telescopic camera to photograph the surface in unprecedented detail and radar to probe underground for ice and possible evidence of liquid water.
The spacecraft won't beam back images or data until November. Like previous space probes before it, it will seek for evidence of ancient water and other signs that the planet could have been hospitable to life.

............



Diana

[Diana]

Still some challenges ahead for NASA's Mars orbiter.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter passed the biggest test of its life by safely entering orbit around the Red Planet, joining a constellation of circling spacecraft. But other challenges lie ahead.

More Info.

[sunofsky]

Diana, I have read many headings in the newspaper and the headlines on the television and the photograph about the MRO mission in the skies of the mars. It would become a tool to educate the people of the world more in detail about mars. I don't know whether it will study the under surface activities of the mars. !

sunil

[Diana]

Hi Sunil...

The MRO carries various scientific instruments and gadgets to study every level of Mars, from "underground layers to the outermost part of its atmosphere.

In one of the threads that you started about Mars, I gave you a link that had all the details of the instruments this spacecraft carries. But incase you did not see it, I will leave another link here where you can read about all the instruments and what the instruments were designed to examine.


HERE


Diana