|
|
NASA launches mission to Mars
After two delays, Mars mission takes off
BY TOMICHEN
 August 12, 2005: NASA has
successfully launched its Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter (MRO) this morning from Launch Complex 41
at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The MRO will
take seven months to reach its destination.
MRO's mission is to check the mysterious red
planet and to find out possible landing spots for
future explorations. An Atlas V launch vehicle, 19
stories high with the aircraft on its top
took off from the base today at 7:43 a.m EDT. In
just four minutes, the powerful first stage
consumed about 200 tons of fuel and oxygen and
then dropped away. The upper stage then continued
its way to let the aircraft to the path towards
Mars. This was the first time an Atlas V launch
vehicle was used for an inter-planetary mission.
"We have a healthy spacecraft on its way to Mars
and a lot of happy people who made this possible,"
said James Graf, project manager for MRO at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena,
California.
Radio connection was established with ground
controllers from the MRO 61 minutes after its
launch. This was just four minutes of separation
from the upper stage. The first contact came
through antenna at the Japan Aerospace Exploration
Agency's Uchinoura Space Center in southern Japan.
Health and status information about the orbiter's
subsystems were received through Uchinoura and the
Goldstone, Calif., antenna station of NASA's Deep
Space Network. The craft's solar panels fnished
unfolding just 14 minutes after the separation,
thus enabling the craft to recharge its batteries
for use . This completed the formal functioning of
the craft as a proper fully functional aircraft.
Using six instruments, the orbiter will examine
the surface, atmosphere and sub surface of
Mars from low orbit in unprecedented detail. With
its high resolution camera, it can capture
features as small as a dishwasher. The MRO is
expected to gather more data than all the previous
Martian missions combined.
The data sent by the orbiter will be examined by
the researchers to study in detail the history and
distribution of Martian water. This can answer the
much debated questions surrounding water and life
in Mars. MRO will also locate the potential
landing sites for future Martian missions, thus
paving the way for a new era in Mars exploration.
MRO's high-data-rate communication system will
effectively establish reliable communication link
with Earth.
Though Mars is 72 million miles from Earth today,
the MRO will travel almost four times the distance
to intercept Mars on March 10,2006. The cruise
period will be busy with checkups, calibrations
and trajectory adjustments.
For landing, the orbiter will fire its engines and
slow itself, thus making it easy for Martian
gravity to capture it into a very elongated orbit.
Using "aero-braking" the craft will spend half a
year gradually shrinking and shaping its orbit.
Aero-braking is a technique using the friction of
carefully calculated dips into the upper
atmosphere to slow down the vehicle. By November
2006, the mission's main science phase will begin.
The launch was delayed by 2 days, first because of
a gyroscope problem on a different Atlas V and
second due to a software glitch.
The MRO mission is managed by JPL, a division of
the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena,
for the NASA Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed
Martin Space Systems, Denver, prime contractor for
the project, built both the spacecraft and the
launch vehicle.
BY TOMICHEN
|
