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.
These landers we've been putting on Mars have me spoiled. I wanna see pictures right away, lol!
LOL !
I think women are more detail oriented than men.
They also, IMHO, make better "team" players..
Men and Women may think "differently"..
Not to say one is better or worse than the other, more like Male and Female pattern of thought processes can complement each other..
It improves the odds for success..
Takin' a lickin' and still Tickin'...
Right you are there. And the odds of a lot more.
As for km v. mi. fiasco, from what I read, it was another example of the dangers of "Just in Time" management.
The team that designed the mission didn't meet the team that was going to run the mission until the very last moment.
Actually, the latter wasn't hired until they would actually be running the mission. Thank you, Dan Goldin.
"Better Faster Cheaper". Too bad it didn't work.
KM vs MI fiasco.. Yeah.. We don't want to do that any more.. ROFL !!!
870 watts? delta v 1000m/sec Man, that is some bird.
NASA TV is " Off the Air."..
So am I, have a great weekend.
Out here.
I haven't visited that website in a long time. Seems Opportunity has found some interesting new features to explore. Will check it out later. Amazing! And to think NASA was hoping they'd last for 90 days!
Thanks for the live thread. It is appreciated!
So, tell me what happened; my inlaws "dropped over!"
The spacecraft worked perfectly. There are now four satellites orbiting Mars, all working.
Thanks!
I appreciate you folks having at it here on the thread, I been doing a bathroom renovate all day.
Glad to hear the MRO bird may be sending back a lot of good pics and data real soon.
Hoagland will be on Coast tonight. He'll have some good inside info and then have some highly imaginative and unlikely speculations. Might be worth tuning in for a few minutes.
Excellent!
MRO seems to be running well--no problems reported. Bush's fault?
NASA has been getting the calculations on the money ever since the incident (late 90s I think) of the confusion of km and miles. Of course, sometimes the hardware just fails to perform. I remember it took a lot of tries just to get an automated, successful, soft landing on the Moon the first time, a mere quarter million miles away. :')
He could tell his progressive employer that the cubit is still the the unit of measure Islamists use for wife-beating implements. I don't know if it is true or not (using cubits, that is). If they believe that, quicker than you can say "dhimmi" they will mandate that the cubit be the measurement standard for everything!
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