Posted on 03/08/2006 9:35:55 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AFP) - NASA scientists were nervous as an orbiter neared Mars after a seven-month voyage carrying the most expensive equipment ever sent to another planet.
"We have a tremendous amount of anxiety and concern at this particular point in time," said Jim Graf, project manager for the Mars Reconnaissance Observer (MRO).
"At the same time we feel confident, we have a very good spacecraft ... (and an) excellent well trained team," he said in a press conference from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
"We are about 325,000 miles (523,036 kilometers) from Mars. We're traveling at about 6,400 miles (10,300 kilometers) an hour and we are going to double our speed as we get closer to Mars," he said.
The tricky part, he said, will be maneuvering the craft into a Mars orbit. Because of the great distance, it takes 12 minutes for data to reach Earth from the craft -- and another 12 minutes for instructions to be sent back.
"There is no time for the team as a whole to react," he said.
"So we have on board all the programs we need to carry out, and the spacecraft has to do it all on its own."
"Mars is unpredictable," Graf said. The tally of travel to Mars is grim: of the 35 missions to Mars since 1960, 21 have failed.
To achieve Mars orbit, the probe's engines will begin firing at 2125 GMT on Friday for 27 minutes. That should slow the craft enough to allow its capture by Mars' gravity.
About 20 minutes later, the orbiter will disappear behind Mars for 30 minutes before it renews contact with very anxious scientists on Earth.
At first, the probe will be in a highly elliptical orbit 400 kilometers (250 miles) above Mars at the closest point and 44,000 kilometers (27,340 miles) at its apogee.
In late March, NASA engineers will start operations to bring the probe to a round orbit close to Mars so it can begin its 25-month observation mission.
The MRO carries six observation and analysis instruments to search from its outer atmosphere to below the martian surface for signs of water and ice.
Are we doing miles or kilometers today?
We're still working on what time it is.
Nothing like Incorrect Data or BS to illicit a response!!
I've got 2:09, if that helps.
The Religous Right has demanded that NASA use "cubits" from now on..
We did alchemy in course 4, and used it for aggregate in course 1.
BTW, whatever happened to the firmament?
God, I hope this thing went into orbit!
spaceflightnow.com
2210 GMT (5:10 p.m. EST)
If the burn has gone according to plan, MRO will have entered a very elongated elliptical orbit just 250 miles above Mars at its closest point and stretching as far as 27,340 miles at the highest point. It will take the spacecraft 35 hours to complete one orbit.
Over the next five months, MRO will perform more than 500 "aerobraking" maneuvers in which it dips into the upper fringes of the planet's atmosphere to reshape the orbit into a low-altitude circular one.
Hey, that's great. We used to throw people out of our frat parties with betraying lines like that...unless you were from Simmons.
Thus, we have phlogiston, which is of course, the manifestation of heaven..
Fortunately, I had the experience of working in the Course 6 department(physics),
Er, no.
Er,no what?
spaceflightnow.com
\2212 GMT (5:12 p.m. EST)
MRO should 1,890 miles above the surface of Mars and traveling at 7,650 miles per hour.
And of course, we all know that without a proper aggregate, nothing concrete can come of your studies..
I was a course 8 major....THAT'S Physics.
spaceflightnow.com
2213 GMT (5:13 p.m. EST)
The spacecraft is supposed to be pointed back at Earth now. Communications are expected in three minutes or so.
They sound happy
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