By my quick ruler calculations, if Earth is 8 light minutes away, it does look like Mars is 12 lm away.
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.
signal received
Seems kind of amazing to me that they'll be taking five months to....we're in orbit!
YES!!!!
contact
" Right on the Money"..
WOOHOO!
Let 'em know that there's a bunch of folks on FR here who are pulling for them.
The orbiter's phoned home? Things look good?
By my quick ruler calculations, if Earth is 8 light minutes away, it does look like Mars is 12 lm away.
Very good!
if the earth is 8 light minutes from the sun....
Anyhoo...as i was saying...is it par for the course for NASA to take five months to "circularize" (???) and lower the orbit of their spacecraft?
"Can you confirm what the orbit is?" (from project manager)
"Telemetry is now coming in."
"Few more minutes and will be able to give a quick status - confirm signal from [multiple stations]"
Yes. The orbit is very low for Mars missions. The data will be enhanced, but atmospheric drag will require frequent adjustments.
What was the report that caused the celebration: "We have one wing"? (I hear poorly)
ping a ling...
Yeah, yeah, yeah...you're right. You remember Professor Gryetak? He was working to make hydrogen into a superfluid. That was his big experiment. I worked a summer job in his lab. He explained his whole race with a dutch lab to prove it could be done. After his explanation, he and his PHD candidate asked me if I had any questions. I said "Yeah...what can you DO with it?"
He got up out of his chair and yelled at me, "NOTHING!!!"
I still respect that to this day.
Pretty much established procedure..
So they're going to have to fine tune during the entire deceleration? And that should take, what, a few months?
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