MRO countdown thread

[yaohua2000]

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was only 100 million kilometers away from Mars at 2005-Aug-25 15:19:32 UTC.

[Swift]

Oh goody a count down thread! We haven't had one since the little comet bashing fun. =D>

[harlequin]

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Performs Critical Maneuver

[yaohua2000]

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was only 99 million kilometers away from Mars at 2005-Aug-26 13:35:17 UTC.

[Count Zero]

Originally Posted by Swift

Oh goody a count down thread! We haven't had one since the little comet bashing fun. =D>

Oh man, I'd forgotten about that! I just love woo-woo predictions. Has Nancy made any good ones, lately?

[yaohua2000]

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was only 98 million kilometers away from Mars at 2005-Aug-27 11:56:05 UTC.

[yaohua2000]

... and Mars itself is now also within a range of 100 million kilometers from Earth, since 2005-Aug-30 20:40:50 UTC. It will take the red planet another 60.28 days or 58.67 sols to reach its closest position from Earth.

[Lord Jubjub]

Originally Posted by Swift

Oh goody a count down thread! We haven't had one since the little comet bashing fun. =D>

I'd suggest a MESSENGER countdown thread, but that would last for years and have increasing numbers at times.

[yaohua2000]

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was only 97 million kilometers away from Mars at 2005-Aug-28 10:22:04 UTC.

[yaohua2000]

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was only 96 million kilometers away from Mars at 2005-Aug-29 08:53:29 UTC.

[yaohua2000]

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was only 95 million kilometers away from Mars at 2005-Aug-30 07:30:40 UTC.

[yaohua2000]

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was only 94 million kilometers away from Mars at 2005-Aug-31 06:13:53 UTC.

[yaohua2000]

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was only 93 million kilometers away from Mars at 2005-Sep-01 05:03:24 UTC.

[Archer17]

Originally Posted by yaohua2000

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was only 93 million kilometers away from Mars at 2005-Sep-01 05:03:24 UTC.

I read this at 2005-Sept-03 05:20:11 UTC.

[yaohua2000]

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was only 92 million kilometers away from Mars at 2005-Sep-02 03:59:30 UTC.

[yaohua2000]

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was only 91 million kilometers away from Mars at 2005-Sep-03 03:02:27 UTC.

[yaohua2000]

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was only 90 million kilometers away from Mars at 2005-Sep-04 02:12:33 UTC.

[yaohua2000]

This thread has been cancelled due to the technical limited of the new board.

[yaohua2000]

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was only 5 million kilometers away from Mars at 2006-Feb-18 12:41:54 UTC.

Keep tracking MRO right on your dashboard (Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger)

http://magicnumber.sourceforge.net

[ToSeek]

I edited the title so it wasn't misleading. Hope you don't mind.

[01101001]

9 days to orbit insertion.

NASA TV Live Events, News and Special Event Programs:

March 10, Friday
3:30 p.m. - 5:45 p.m. [begins 1530 EST, 1230 PST, 2030 GMT] - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Coverage - JPL (Mission Coverage) (Public and Media Channel)

Watch NASA TV

From the MRO Arrival Press Kit (PDF about 1 megabyte):

Insertion Events and Approximate [Earth-Received] Times
March 10, 2006

Pacific / Eastern / Event

7:24 a.m. 10:24 a.m. Final trajectory correction maneuver (if needed)
1:07 p.m. 4:07 p.m. Start of turn to orbit-insertion attitude
1:19 p.m. 4:19 p.m. End of turn to orbit-insertion attitude
1:24 p.m. 4:24 p.m. Start of orbit-insertion burn by main thrusters
1:45 p.m. 4:45 p.m. Entry into shadow of Mars, shift from solar to battery power
1:47 p.m. 4:47 p.m. Loss of signal as spacecraft goes behind Mars
1:51 p.m. 4:51 p.m. End of orbit-insertion burn (though still out of contact)
2:01 p.m. 5:01 p.m. End of turn toward Earth pointing (still out of contact)
2:16 p.m. 5:16 p.m. Reacquisition of signal as orbiter emerges from behind Mars

All times in Earth-received time, the time at which the radio signals from the spacecraft reach Earth. The distance between the two planets on March 10 will be 215 million kilometers (134 million miles). Traveling at the speed of light, radio signals take 12 minutes to travel from Mars to Earth.

[Launch window]

Originally Posted by 01101001

9 days to orbit insertion.

thanks for all the updates

[yaohua2000]

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was 2000000 kilometers away from Mars at 2006-03-02 19:17:59 UTC.

[Manchurian Taikonaut]

some MRO news


Mars missions mapping polar caps, impact craters
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS NEWS RELEASE
Posted: March 1, 2006
Two Mars orbiter missions - one from NASA, the other from the European Space Agency (ESA) - will open new vistas in the exploration of Mars through the use of sophisticated ground-penetrating radars, providing international researchers with the first direct clues about the Red Planet's subsurface structure.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0603/01mars/
Roger Phillips, Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences, is participating in both the Mars Express (ESA) and NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) missions by lending his expertise in radar. Phillips says that the combination of the radars on the two missions will provide important and unique data sets that will directly map the structure of the upper portions of the interior of Mars.


One week from Friday, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is expected to begin orbiting the Red Planet, after a seven-month journey from Earth. The probe was launched August 12, 2005.
http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?C...3-2116ae9cbaac
The $720 million space probe will fire its braking engines for 27 minutes at precisely 4:24 pm MST March 10, beginning its maneuver that, hopefully, will slow the aircraft enough that the planet's gravity will pull it into orbit. Should the engines not fire as designed, the school-bus-sized spacecraft will shoot past Mars, it's mission over.
"Mars doesn't treat you very well, for the most part," said Doug McCuistion, NASA's Mars exploration program director, to the Rocky Mountain News. "So this is a very challenging thing to do."

[Launch window]

Live coverage of the arrival at Mars originates from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., on NASA TV and the Web. The JPL newsroom will be open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. EST, March 10. The main number for the newsroom is: (818) 354-5011.


Live arrival and orbit insertion commentary airs on NASA TV and the Web on March 10 beginning at 3:30 p.m. EST. The orbiter's main engines begin firing shortly after 4:24 p.m. EST to slow it enough for Martian gravity to grab it into orbit. Commentary ends at approximately 5:45 p.m. EST.


To cover news briefings and mission events at JPL, reporters must contact Media Relations at: (818) 354-5011 not later than 6 p.m. EST, March 7. Valid I.D. and press credentials must be shown on arrival. Non U.S. citizens must present passport and visa. News briefings from JPL will be carried on the Web and NASA TV

[01101001]

Less than 48 hours to insertion.

NASA MRO Mission News: Fast-Talking NASA Spacecraft Starts Final Approach to Mars

The sequence began Tuesday and will culminate with firing the craft's main thrusters for about 27 minutes on Friday -- a foot on the brakes to reduce velocity by about 20 percent as the spacecraft swings around Mars at about 5,000 meters per second (about 11,000 miles per hour). Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, are monitoring the events closely.

"We have been preparing for years for the critical events the spacecraft must execute on Friday," said JPL's Jim Graf, project manager. "By all indications, we're in great shape to succeed, but Mars has taught us never to get overconfident. Two of the last four orbiters NASA sent to Mars did not survive final approach."

[yaohua2000]

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was only 500000 kilometers away from Mars at 2006-03-08 22:14:28 UTC.

The velocity relative to Mars was 2.852 km/s. (13.9x slower than New Horizons relative to Pluto)

[Launch window]

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2006

These are tense days at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Lockheed Martin spacecraft control centers where engineers are guiding the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to Friday's maneuvers for entering orbit around the planet.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mro/status.html
The 27-minute firing of the six main engines on MRO will slow the craft, allowing Mars to capture the instrument-laden probe into an initial looping orbit. If the burn doesn't occur or gets cut short by a problem, the probe would be doomed to fly right past Mars.

[01101001]

24 hours to start of orbit insertion burn (Earth-received time).

[yaohua2000]

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was only 200000 kilometers away from Mars at 2006-03-10 03:18:30 UTC.

velocity = 2.897 km/s
range-rate = -2.895 km/s