Orbiter Successfully Enters Orbit

dylanduck writes "Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has slipped safely into orbit - unlike two of the last four orbiters NASA sent to Mars. Remember Mars Climate Orbiter and the mix up between metric and English units? MRO is going to send back 34 trillion bytes of data, more than all the previous missions put together." From the article: "The spacecraft will use a suite of six instruments, including the most powerful camera ever sent to another planet. This will image objects as small as 1-metre wide and should be able to snap pictures of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. The instruments will track the planet's weather, geology and mineralogy, and even probe about a kilometre beneath its surface to hunt for water."

Just read about it

[FST]

I just read about this two hours ago. Apparently, the orbit insertion was a critical moment in the mission, as two of the last four orbiters NASA sent to Mars (mentioned in summary) did not survive the final approach. Mars Observer spacecraft fell silent on approach in 1993, probably because of a leak caused when its propulsion system was pressurised. And the Mars Climate Orbiter probably broke up in the planet's atmosphere in 1999 due to a mix up between metric and Imperial units (also mentioned in summary).

most powerful camera?

[wildzer0]

Why is the new camera with a resolution of 1 metre better than the current camera on Mars Global Surveyor, which is able to deliver some images with a resolution of 50 cm? See here [msss.com] for example pictures with this resolution.

google mars

[demmer]

it would be cool if they added the 1m data to google maps.

Re:most powerful camera?

[mopomi]

HiRISE also doesn't need to use extra spacecraft fuel to achieve its 30 cm resolution; MOC has to slew the entire spacecraft against the velocity vector in order to stay on target. HiRISE gets its high resolution from superior optics (this is the largest telescope ever sent on an inter-planetary mission) and from superior camera design (14 CCDs, insanely fast electronics, etc.).

Re:resolution of camera

[MtViewGuy]

From what I've read, the best resolution you can get from a reconnaissance satellite using adaptive optics and a main mirror about the size of the Hubble Space Telescope is about 2-3 inches, mostly due to the refractive effects of the Earth's atmosphere and the fact our KH-11/12 digital imaging reconnaissance satellites orbit at around 300 km (186 miles) altitude. This isn't like the older film-based reconnaissance satellites that at times dipped as low as 145 km altitude to get pictures.

The limitations of Ikonos and QuickBird is about 100 cm resolution, based mostly on the limitations of the size of the main mirror on these satellites and the near-300 mile orbit of them.

Re:resolution of camera

[eck011219]

Before I begin, let me say that I am a space idiot and an optics idiot. I'm a graphic designer, for God's sake, and I admit up-front that I know NOTHING about this.

HOWEVER, I wonder out loud (and ask for all your input as I'd like to learn) if some of the resolution issues discussed here aren't VERY different between Earth and Mars based on the atmosphere. Earth has, as I understand it, a very heavy atmosphere, and Mars (according to a quick Google search) seems to have a thin, light atmosphere. But whether you assume light to be a wave or energy (or both or neither), would it not follow that all the water and crap in the atmosphere wouldn't create a somewhat unpredictable lens (or more to the point, several layers of lenses) that would obviously have to be accounted for? I'm sure this is figured in to the calculations of the orbiter lens designs, but I can't help but wonder if the relatively low resolution is also a product of the variation in the relative sludge (compared to from-space or from-the-surface shots) through which the pictures will be shot.

Re:ONE TRILLION DOLLARS!!!!

[TrevorB]

I had to actually check out what the MRO bandwidth actually *was*

According to the MRO telecommunications page [nasa.gov], the max bandwidth from MRO is 6 mbps. That's faster than my Cable internet connection!

Also, according to this page, our slashdot article summary is wrong. MRO is sending back 34 terabits, not 34 terabytes. Still that's a lot of (geology) porn. Looking forward to it. I wonder if the DSN guys will throttle their bandwidth?

Re:Beagle 2

[SlySpy007]

In addition, there is a real hope that we'll finally be able to find the remains of MPL (Mars Polar Lander, failed lander mission which probably crashed due to an improperly interpreted sensor measurement).

Re:They're still mixing units

[teaenay]

I honestly thought it was a typo in the summary when I read, "metric and English" units and had a bit of a chuckle to myself. "hee hee, the mix up between metric and metric units". England are on the metric system too and I don't know anyone that refers to the Imperial system as the 'English' system.

I just found this description on nasas site [nasa.gov] that has a nice summary of the state of the metric system:

Most of the world uses the metric system. The only countries not on this system are Burma, Liberia, Muscat, South Yemen, and the United States of America.

There's also a nice summary of the history of the metric system in the US here. [unc.edu] Too bad we missed out on our chance to measure things in decades, roods and furlongs as proposed by Thomas Jefferson in his own metric system equivalent.

Sojourner

[John Marter]

If it can spot Spirit and Opportunity, maybe it can also spot Sojourner. It would be cool to see if Sojourner made it back to Sagan Memorial Station and circled it.