Prayers for success!
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.
here we go
spaceflightnow.com
FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 2006
2024 GMT (3:24 p.m. EST)
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter currently weighs 4,784 pounds. That is 22 pounds less than it did at launch because of the propellant consumed during trajectory correction maneuvers performed after leaving Earth. But the course was so accurate that navigators saved 60 pounds budgeted to adjust the flight path if needed. Those savings translate into fuel for the spacecraft to perform an extra seven months of science operations at the end of the mission, according to Howard Eisen, MRO flight systems manager.
The 27-minute orbit insertion burn will guzzle up 1,726 pounds of fuel, about two-thirds of the spacecraft's entire propellant supply.
spaceflightnow.com
2052 GMT (3:52 p.m. EST)
The propulsion system has been pressurized as planned. The flight control team was just told they can stand down from their contingency plans.
pressurization complete, pyro fireing complete, just waiting for burn
Hope so. Give them a meter, and they'll take a mile...
This LIVE Thread has been removed from Breaking News, so no one will see it unless it happens to scroll by.
spaceflightnow.com
2105 GMT (4:05 p.m. EST)
The handover has occurred. Now 19 minutes to the burn ignition.
2103 GMT (4:03 p.m. EST)
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is now switching its communications mode from the precise high-gain antenna to the low-gain antenna. The low-gain allows the spacecraft to receive and send signals without having to directly point the antenna at Earth. The telemetry data will be 160 bits per second.
15 minutes until burn
spaceflightnow.com
2107 GMT (4:07 p.m. EST)
MRO is 3,600 miles from Mars and traveling at 9,300 miles per hour.
Prayers for success!
spaceflightnow.com
2108 GMT (4:08 p.m. EST)
Standing by for confirmation that the spacecraft's turn to the burn attitude has started as planned.
slew is begining
That's about 15 minutes from now.
spaceflightnow.com
2110 GMT (4:10 p.m. EST)
The spacecraft has begun its reorientation turn to the position needed for the engine burn. MRO is doing all of these activities autonomously based on pre-loaded commands.
Gravity sucks...
spaceflightnow.com
2112 GMT (4:12 p.m. EST)
The turn should be complete at 4:19 p.m.
bump
Hope the Martian Spacecraft Defense System doesn't get it.
Always love to catch these "live"...
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