PASADENA, Calif. - The most powerful spacecraft ever sent to Mars has settled into a nearly circular orbit, a move that allows scientists to begin studying the planet in unprecedented detail, NASA said Tuesday.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter fired its thrusters for 12 minutes Monday to adjust to its final position six months after it arrived at the planet. Its altitude ranges between 155 to 196 miles above the surface.
"Getting to this point is a great achievement," said Dan Johnston, deputy mission manager at the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the $720 million mission.
Over the next several months, the orbiter will deploy its 33-foot antenna and remove a lens cap from one of its instruments. It will begin collecting data in November, and scientists expect the resolution of those images to be nine times higher.
The unmanned orbiter safely slipped into orbit around Mars in March after a seven-month, 310 million-mile journey. It joined three other spacecraft currently flying around the planet and two rovers rolling across the surface.
Several weeks after entering orbit, a high-resolution camera aboard the spacecraft beamed back a test image showing the planet's southern highlands and cratered surface.
The orbiter spent the last half-year repeatedly dipping in to the upper atmosphere to shrink its orbit in a tricky process known as aerobraking.
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Does the US plan a manned mission to Mars? I bet the Chinese do.
They have recently approved a Moon/Mars vessel. Whether the Mars landing will be attempted in my lifetime, I haven't yet been able to determine.
Opportunity rover has reached a new
milestone, Victoria Crater.
By NED POTTER
Oct. 6, 2006 ?- "NASA is in the process of taking over Mars," said Steven Squyres, the principal investigator for the two rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which have been exploring the Martian surface for more than two years.
"Today is day 960 of Opportunity's 90-day mission," he said today at a Washington news conference. The rovers have gone far beyond their expected lifetimes, and NASA has had to come up with money to keep funding its support team on Earth.
Now the rovers have been joined by a new ship, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is circling the planet at an altitude of 170 miles and sending back its first images. They are so detailed that in one, the Opportunity rover appears as a small, dark triangle, perched on the edge of a crater.
A dark line extends from the triangle. Scientists said it is the shadow of the mast on Opportunity's top deck that carries most of its cameras.
Sandy Desert in the Martian Cold
Opportunity has been exploring a vast, sandy plain on Mars, and its operators back on Earth say they're amazed it's still operating. It's gotten stuck in the sand twice; one time they had to spin the wheels for six weeks to get it free.
There is no way to tow it free. Mars is currently about 240 million miles from Earth.
The crater at which Opportunity has now arrived is called Victoria. It is about a mile wide, and Squyres said it offers a great chance to see beneath the upper layers of soil.
"What an amazing time for space exploration," said Jim Bell, Squyres' long-time partner on the rover project. Bell and Squyres, both scientists at Cornell University, first proposed the Mars rovers in 1987.
Opportunity will now probe the cliffs that surround Victoria crater. But after 960 days on Mars, it is showing signs of wear. One of its wheels won't turn, and its batteries are harder to charge.
"We are not going to do a leisurely tour of this crater, because our days are numbered," Squyres said.
The cooridination!
It's worth a picture, especially this one. Look at that crater!
That's a little bitty rover next to that big hole.
Is that the crater the rover is on the edge of?
Its amazing that machine. Shouldnt it have died a year ago?
The rovers were designed to operate about 90 days, if I recall correctly. They are slowly wearling down, but still have a lot to give before they rae done. You can see Opportunity in the photo.
Acquiunk wrote:There is, it turns out, a lunar ice cap (under all the dust), on at least the southern pole. If there is water on the polar regions of both the moon and Mars, I think it is obvious that Mars would have once had much more water as it is a much larger body.
Mars has large amounts of water ice at both poles. In addition, based on the water erosion on the surface (and the global oxidization) it is estimated that Mars once had an average
global depth of 200-900 meters of water.
Quote:OT, but..
No evidence for thick deposits of ice at the lunar south pole
I knew it! I was laughing when I heard they were going to even bother looking!
I think the fact they are still operating is hard scientific evidence of global warming on Mars.
There must be a lot more sunshine than they expected to keep those batteries charged!
(I'm joking about the global warming)
Oh. I don't know much about the rover power source, all I know is that the spec'd lifetime is VERY conservative, which is why they keep "amazingly lasting beyond the expected time".
As to the global warming on Mars, that was about 3.5 billion yrs ago if I'm not mistaken.
New images of the rovers..
opportunity
spirit
And also those of viking1 and viking2..
mission news
