Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Conceptual drawing
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is a planned multipurpose spacecraft scheduled to launch August 10, 2005 to advance human understanding of Mars through detailed observation, to examine potential landing sites for future surface missions and to provide a high-data-rate communications relay for those missions. The plans call for controlled use of atmospheric friction in a process called aerobraking for about six months after arrival to change the initial, very elongated orbit into a rounder shape optimal for science operations.
The orbiter's shallow radar experiment, one of six science instruments on board, is designed to probe the internal structure of Mars' polar ice caps, as well as to gather information planet-wide about underground layers of ice, rock and, perhaps, liquid water that might be accessible from the surface.
"We're reaching an important stage in developing the spacecraft," said James Graf, project manager for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "The primary structure will be completed next month." The structure weighs 220 kilograms (484 pounds) and stands 3 meters (10 feet) tall. At launch, after gear and fuel are added, it will support over 2 tons.
Workers at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, have already assembled the spacecraft structure and will later add instruments being built for it at the University of Arizona, Tucson; at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.; at the Italian Space Agency, Rome; at Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif.; and at JPL.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will lay the groundwork for later Mars surface missions in NASA's plans: a lander called Phoenix selected last month in a competition for a 2007 launch opportunity, and a highly capable rover called Mars Science Laboratory being developed for a 2009 launch opportunity. The orbiter's high-resolution instruments will help planners evaluate possible landing sites for these missions both in terms of science potential for further discoveries and in terms of landing risks. The orbiter's communications capabilities will provide a critical transmission relay for the surface missions.
The science payload will include:
- A descent imager.
- A stereo panoramic camera.
- A robot arm that can dig up to 90 centimeters deep.
- A thermal evolved gas analyzer.
- A mass spectrometer.
- Optical and atomic force microscopes.
- Electrical and thermal sensors.
- A wet chemistry laboratory for soil analysis.
- A suite of meteorological instruments that includes a laser-based system for studying atmospheric phenomena, such as dust devils.