Posted on 08/12/2005 12:50:54 PM PDT by BenLurkin
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - A spacecraft designed to gather more Mars data than all previous missions combined blasted off Friday into a golden morning sky on its way to the Red Planet.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter lifted off on an Atlas V rocket for the seven-month journey, which began three days after space shuttle Discovery completed its mission.
"So far, an absolutely terrific week for space exploration," said Orlando Figueroa, a deputy associate administrator at NASA.
The launch went flawlessly. The booster rocket shut down and dropped off into the Atlantic minutes after liftoff, and the second-stage rocket separated less than an hour later, leading workers at the launch control center to break into applause. A short time later, two solar panels that will provide power during the voyage unfolded from the orbiter.
A glitch in computer sensors and software during fueling forced NASA to postpone the launch Thursday.
"What a difference a day makes," said launch manager Chuck Dovale. "It couldn't have been any smoother."
Circling the planet for at least four years after arriving in March 2006, the orbiter is to provide unparalleled information on Mars' weather, climate and geology, which could aid possible future human exploration of the Red Planet.
The $720 million mission has two parts.
During its first two years, the orbiter will build on NASA's knowledge of the history of the planet's ice. The planet is cold and dry with large caps of frozen water at its poles, but scientists think it was a wetter and possibly warmer place eons ago — conditions that might have been conducive to life. Scientists are also trying to determine if it could support future human outposts.
Equipped with the largest telescopic camera ever sent to another planet, the orbiter also will collect data that will help NASA plan where to land two robotic explorers later this decade. The Phoenix Mars Scout, in search of organic chemicals, will be launched in 2007, and the Mars Science Laboratory will follow two years later.
During the mission's second phase, the orbiter will transmit messages between Earth and the robotic explorers on Mars. The reconnaissance orbiter's antenna can transmit 10 times more data per minute than the current trio of satellites positioned around the planet — NASA's Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey and the European Space Agency's Mars Express.
Two NASA rovers launched in 2003, Spirit and Opportunity, continue to roam the planet and may be the first to send information back to Earth via the reconnaissance orbiter.
The orbiter is loaded with two cameras that will provide high-resolution images and global maps of Martian weather, a spectrometer that will identify water-related minerals and a radiometer to measure atmospheric dust. The Italian Space Agency has provided ground-penetrating radar.
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Does anybody know what those towers are around the launch site? The ESA has them around their launch site too.
I thought Mars' ice caps were essentially frozen CO2, not frozen H2O...
"Does anybody know what those towers are around the launch site? The ESA has them around their launch site too."
Basically a giant farraday cage for lightning protection.
There are cables connecting them.
protect from lightning strikes .
I think it has both.
Thanks, that would be my guess. I wonder why the shuttle pad doesn't have the same thing. Perhaps it's built into the service tower.
And WE can't make a wee little fence from Brownsville,TX to San Diego, Ca... Must be easier getting to Mars.. cause its not CHEAPER...
"Perhaps it's built into the service tower."
Yep. Long spire at the top.
One of the caps is primarily Carbon Dioxide, the other is water, but I forget which is which.
Remember most popular media science articles are written by idiots.
This is potentially more important than a Space Shuttle flight. Not a lot is known about Mars compared to what needs to be known to start a settlement. More is known than there was a couple years ago, but there is much more to learn. $700 million, $2 per person, a gallon of gasoline, if we can't afford that, we don't deserve to have a future and should prepare to become third world.
The towers are kind of large. Weather? Telemetry?
I'm pretty sure there is a large white lightning arrester at the top of the launch gantry .
Can we assume the spacecraft is still doing well since there seem to be no fresh updates?
So far , so good !
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. – Just minutes after liftoff, the 19-stories-tall Atlas V launch vehicle, with a two-ton Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) on top, roars into the clear blue sky from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Liftoff was at 7:43 a.m. EDT. All systems performed nominally for NASA's first launch of an Atlas V on an interplanetary mission. MRO established radio contact with controllers 61 minutes after launch and within four minutes of separation from the upper stage. Initial contact came through an antenna at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Uchinoura Space Center in southern Japan. Mars is 72 million miles from Earth today, but the spacecraft will travel more than four times that distance on its outbound-arc trajectory to intercept the red planet on March 10, 2006. The orbiter carries six scientific instruments for examining the surface, atmosphere and subsurface of Mars in unprecedented detail from low orbit. NASA expects to get several times more data about Mars from MRO than from all previous Martian missions combined. Researchers will use the instruments to learn more about the history and distribution of Mars' water. That information will improve understanding of planetary climate change and will help guide the quest to answer whether Mars ever supported life. The orbiter will also evaluate potential landing sites for future missions. (Photo Credit: Tom Rogers)
News of GOES-N from SpaceflightNow.com:
2300 GMT (7:00 p.m. EDT)
Launch has been postponed to Monday. The window extends from 6:32 to 7:06 p.m. EDT (2232-2306 GMT).
FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 2005
With NASA's newest Martian voyager now en route to the Red Planet, attention at the Cape now turns to Sunday's planned launch of a Delta 4 rocket of a next-generation weather satellite to bring home new images to be used by meteorologists in near-term forecasts.
The flight was delayed an additional day from Saturday to give this morning's Atlas 5 launch one more chance to begin Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's journey.
The Delta 4 rocket, with a pair of strap-on solid rocket boosters to give an extra boost to orbit, has 34 minutes to get off the ground Sunday evening beginning at 6:31 p.m. EDT (2231 GMT).
Other launches from SpaceflightNow.com:
Liftoff of the 1,699th Soyuz rocket was at 2328 GMT (7:28 p.m. EDT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome's launch pad 6 in the arid plains of central Kazakhstan. The 680,000-pound four-stage rocket flew on an easterly course away from the historic launch site before being injected into orbit a few minutes after its on-time departure.
During the boost phase, cameras at Baikonur showed the Soyuz heading east across central Asia as it flew into sunlight in the pre-dawn sky. The plume from the launcher's core stage expanded in the upper atmosphere, providing a picturesque shot for television viewers and spectators.
Using a pair of burns, the seventh flight of the Fregat upper stage propelled the over 4,000-pound Galaxy 14 satellite into the targeted geostationary transfer orbit with an expected high point of 44,990 miles, low point of 4,144 miles, and an inclination of 49.3 degrees. The Fregat used springs to separate from the payload about an hour and 37 minutes after launch, and officials later confirmed the craft was in good health.
If I had an extra 20 mill layin' around I'd let them send me to the Space Station . What a rush that must be !
Pluto launch coming up, SpaceflightNow.com:
New Horizons will be launched aboard an Atlas 5 "551" vehicle, with a bulbous five-meter payload shroud built by the Swiss contractor Contraves, five Aerojet-built solid rocket boosters, another single-engine Centaur, and a Star 48B third stage. The rocket will send the probe on a speedy trajectory past the Moon within nine hours and on to a Jupiter flyby in late February 2007. Pluto arrival will be in about 2015.
The 1,025-pound spacecraft is currently sitting in a vacuum chamber at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, where it is undergoing tests before being shipped to Kennedy Space Center to begin launch preparations.
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