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  #31 (permalink)  
Old 10-March-2006, 08:33 PM
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Thrust is "right on" based on the Doppler.

Based on the status of the "cat bed heaters" (which warm the fuel before it's burned), all engines are firing as expected.

PSI slightly lower than expected but within tolerances.

Seven minutes in, 295 mph of delta v accumulated, as expected.
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Old 10-March-2006, 08:33 PM
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7 minutes into burn. All main engines normal.
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Old 10-March-2006, 08:33 PM
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Right on the money...go MRO!
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Old 10-March-2006, 08:39 PM
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A third of the way through the burn, everything going as expected.
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Old 10-March-2006, 08:43 PM
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Accumulated 499 m/second, about half of what's needed. Attitude errors are minimal. Everything looking good.
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Old 10-March-2006, 08:44 PM
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Looking good so far.
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Old 10-March-2006, 08:45 PM
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Upcoming events:

Pacific / Eastern / Event

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

===

8 minutes from burn completion now.
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Old 10-March-2006, 08:45 PM
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Accumulated 588 m/second, all engines continue to burn nominally.
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Old 10-March-2006, 08:47 PM
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MRO has just passed closest approach to Mars, burn has achieved 63% of planned deceleration.
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Old 10-March-2006, 08:47 PM
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667 m/sec, 2/3 of burn complete. Spacecraft is entering eclipse, in shadow of Mars.
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Old 10-March-2006, 08:48 PM
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Loss of signal as spacecraft passes out of sight behind Mars.
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Old 10-March-2006, 08:49 PM
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Now we wait 30 minutes for results.
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Old 10-March-2006, 08:50 PM
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Last data: 694 m/second deceleration, all engines burning nominally. Now a half-hour wait before we know anything more.

Doppler plot prior to LOS looked right on the money.
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Old 10-March-2006, 08:51 PM
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Spacecraft should be out of shadow, back on solar power.
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Old 10-March-2006, 08:51 PM
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Cool. Just tuned in to NASA TV. Looks like MRO will be occulted for another 30 minutes though.
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Old 10-March-2006, 08:53 PM
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The burn is over now, if all went well.
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Old 10-March-2006, 08:54 PM
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Burn should now be complete.

Last data before LOS showed that burn was 1% less than expected due to the fuel pressure being slightly less than ideal.
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Old 10-March-2006, 08:56 PM
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Spacecraft should be slewing back to Earth acquisition attitude.
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Old 10-March-2006, 08:56 PM
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I just tuned in to NASA TV to find out that MRO had just occulted.
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Old 10-March-2006, 09:07 PM
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JPL is sending the command for the spacecraft to go back to the high-gain antenna. It will take 12 minutes for the signal to get to Mars and another 12 to get the first high-gain signal.

Meanwhile, the spacecraft should have completed its slew back to Earth-pointing mode.
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Old 10-March-2006, 09:08 PM
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Two antennas each at the DSN stations in Goldstone and Madrid are monitoring MOI. Winds are kind of high at Goldstone.
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Old 10-March-2006, 09:12 PM
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Just said now that the spacecraft is 4 minutes away from completing the slew back to Earth-point. The live commentary indicated that there are two parts to the slew, so perhaps it's the first part (turning so that the Sun isn't shining on the instruments) that was scheduled to be complete at 1 after the hour.
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