Nasa Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (Mro) 2005 Mission

NASA MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER (MRO) 2005 MISSION

R. Stephen Saunders Planetary Science Institute, and NASA HQ, Washington, D.C. stephen.saunders@nasa.gov

The MRO mission continues the “Follow the Water” theme of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program with new and higher resolution remote sensing investigations of the surface, subsurface, and atmosphere of Mars. These investigations will advance our understanding of the present and past climates of Mars, including implications for the search for life. Launched in August 2005, MRO will enter Mars orbit in March 2006. Following a six-month aerobraking phase, MRO will achieve a near-polar, 3 p.m., 255 x 320 km orbit in the fall of 2006. From this orbit, MRO will conduct a campaign of global, regional and targeted observations for just over one Mars year, followed by a relay phase lasting until end of mission in December 2010. The science objectives are:

* Characterize Mars' seasonal cycles of water, dust & carbon dioxide. * Characterize global atmospheric structure, transport and surface changes. * Search sites for evidence of aqueous and/or hydrothermal activity. * Characterize stratigraphy, geology, and composition of surface features. * Characterize the Martian ice caps and the polar layered terrains. * Profile the upper crust while probing for subsurface water and ground ice. * Characterize the gravity field and upper atmosphere in greater detail.

The last objective uses spacecraft tracking data during the primary science phase and spacecraft accelerometer data during aerobraking. To achieve the other objectives, MRO carries an international science payload with meter-scale and context imaging, hyperspectral compositional mapping in the visible and near-IR, atmospheric profiling and weather monitoring, and radar probing of the near subsurface:

HiRISE: High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (0.3-m GSD, 6 km swath with center stripe color capability) CTX: Context Imager (30 km swath, 6-m GSD, broadband visible) CRISM: Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (20-m, 10-nm targeted; 150-200 m global in ~60 channels) MARCI: Mars Color Imager (Wide Angle Camera, 7 channels) MCS: Mars Climate Sounder (Infrared Atmospheric Profiler) SHARAD: Shallow Radar Profiler (20 MHz central frequency)

MRO will identify for future missions (Phoenix, MSL) areas of high scientific interest and characterize surface hazards at the highest priority landing sites. MRO also carries an optical navigation camera & a Ka-Band telecom system as technology demonstrations for future Mars missions.