The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter - More Than Just A Pretty Robot

NASA's next mission to Mars will examine it in unprecedented detail from low orbit, and it will provide more data about this intriguing planet than all previous missions combined. The spacecraft will examine Martian features ranging from the top of the atmosphere to underground layering. Researchers will use it to study the history and distribution of Martian water. It will also support future Mars missions by characterizing landing sites and providing a high-data-rate communications relay.

Launch opportunities begin Aug. 10 for the much heralded Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The orbiter and its launch vehicle are nearing final stages of preparation at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla. "Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is the next step in our ambitious exploration of Mars," said NASA's director of the Mars Exploration Program, Douglas McCuistion.

"We expect to use this spacecraft's eyes in the sky in coming years as our primary tools to identify and evaluate the best places for future missions to land."

The large silver circular feature above the spacecraft bus is the high-gain antenna,
the spacecraft's main means of communicating with both Earth and other spacecraft.
The long, thin pole behind the bus is the SHARAD antenna.

The Electra telecommunications package is the gold-colored instrument. It will
act as a communications relay and navigation aid for future Mars spacecraft.

The spacecraft carries six instruments for probing the atmosphere, surface and subsurface to examine the planet to help determine how it has changed over time. One of the science payload's three cameras will be the largest-diameter telescopic camera ever sent to another planet. It will reveal rocks and layers as small as the width of an office desk. Another camera will expand the present area of high-resolution coverage by a factor of 10. A third will provide global maps of Martian weather.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as it orbits over the martian poles.

The other three instruments are a spectrometer for identifying water-related minerals in patches as small as a baseball infield; a ground-penetrating radar, supplied by the Italian Space Agency, to peer beneath the surface for layers or rock, ice and, if present, water; and a radiometer to monitor atmospheric dust, water vapor and temperature.

The SHARAD instrument will seek liquid or frozen water within the
first few hundred feet (up to a kilometer) under the martian surface.

"Learning more about what has happened to the water will focus searches for possible Martian life, past or present."

Two additional scientific investigations will analyze the motion of the spacecraft in orbit to study the structure of the upper atmosphere and the Martian gravity field.

"We will keep pursuing a follow-the-water strategy with Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter," said Dr. Michael Meyer, Mars exploration chief scientist at NASA Headquarters. "Dramatic discoveries by Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey and the Mars Exploration Rovers about recent gullies, near-surface permafrost and ancient surface water have given us a new Mars in the past few years."

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Using its Mars Climate Sounder.

Using nine channels across the visible and thermal infrared ranges of the
spectrum, the Mars Climate Sounder looks first at space through the
atmosphere above the horizon of Mars to get a vertical profile with temperature,
pressure, dust opacity and water vapor concentration measurements every 5
kilometers (3 miles) in the vertical from the ground to 80 km (~50 miles).
It also looks down onto the planet to get surface temperature
and column abundances of dust and water vapor.

Article Author: Bennett Dawson

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