Mars Recon Orbiter Nearing Mars Orbit

DarkNemesis618 writes "The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched 12 August 2005, has nearly completed its 7 month journey to the Red Planet. At 9:24 pm GMT, the MRO is scheduled to fire its thrusters to slow it down enough to enter Mars orbit. NASA scientists are concerned about this final step for the orbiter as Mars has a history of 'swallowing' probes, orbiters, and landers sent to the Red Planet. What makes it more difficult is the delay time between NASA computers on earth and computers on board the orbiter. There is about a 12 minute delay between when data is sent from Earth to the time the orbiter's receivers pick it up, and vice versa. Because of this, onboard computers will handle the burn which adds to the risk."

Comments

Late Breaking News:

[TripMaster Monkey]

Despair gave way to cautious optimism today across the community as K'Breel, Speaker for the most Illustrious Council of Elders, delivered a statement. The statement was in response to scattered reports that the disgusting inhabitants of the evil blue planet were at last feeling the awful toll of war.

Referring to the intercepted communications from the sinister blue planet, which characterized our fair world as 'unpredictable', made references to our past triumphs as our world 'swallowing' their devices of terror, and admonishing their leaders not to become 'overconfident' in their dealings with us, K'Breel waxed poetic on the Speaking Dais, amid much gelsac-swelling:

"Gentle Citizens, today I stand before you as qurilly as a youngling in the knowledge that the hideous inhabitants of the evil blue planet are at last feeling the awful reality of what it is to make war against the Community. Even now their debased leaders are faced with the inevitablity of defeat! Rejoice with me, pod-mates! This is the turning point!"

When several of the attending citizens failed to immediately make merry, K'breel denounced them as traitors and ordered their gelsacs punctured on the spot.

Isn't there something missing from that story?

[Expert Determination]

Isn't it supposed to say how this probe might discover signs of alien life like every other story about space in the last decade? Leaving that out is like leaving out the period at the end of a sentence.

Watch play-by-play at SFN

[xmas2003]

SpaceFlightNow has the play-by-play - more exciting than watching grass grow ;-)

Catching up?

[WhiteLudaFan]

Let's see if we can catch up with the little red martians... Mars Scorecard

A few nice links to look at.

[tetrahedrassface]

from #space to /.

link to JPL Mission Control webcam http://137.78.244.28/axis-cgi/mjpg/video.cgi?camer a=&showlength=1&resolution

NASAtv coverage has begun. http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/

Realtime Dopplar radar from MRO: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/realtime/mro-doppler_ lg.html

This is gonna be fun!

Re:A few nice links to look at.

[Otter]

link to JPL Mission Control webcam

For anyone expecting a view from the orbiter -- note that this is literally a webcam of JPL Mission Control. On the other hand, if you're interested in watching a bunch of balding nerds stare at their monitors, enjoy!

Re:Lag!

[podperson]

It's just lucky for NASA that there's no difference between US/Imperial and metric time, or that might be a source of problems in itself.

Computerized burns

[donour]

Haven't orbital burns been computer controlled since the beginning human spaceflight. If I remember correctly, the manual burn during the Apollo 13 mission was not routine.

It isn't really a burn, but aren't all space shuttle landing corrections done by machine as well. I seem to remember reading that the shuttle had only been landed by hand once.

Re:Computerized burns

[AKAImBatman]

All the apollo lunar landings were flown manually for the last minute or so.

Actually, Armstrong took manual control from the computer during the Apollo 11 landing. This was due to several program errors (the radar switch was in the wrong position) as well as mistakes in automatic guidance. Armstrong was advised to abort at one point, but chose to land the Eagle anyway.

My recollection is that shuttle landings are generally flown manually.

Pretty much everything up until the landing gear is released is automatic. The Shuttle could be landed on automatic, but the engineers made an intentional decision to make the landing gear deployment a 100% manual process. The reason for this is that the landing gear cannot be stowed in flight once it is deployed. Should a computer error occur, premature deployment of the gear could cause a failed reentry or undershoot of the intended landing zone.

The Russians, OTOH, had no qualms about automating the landing. The Buran Space Shuttle flew once with no crew aboard, and safely landed on full automatic.

Communication Intercepted From Mars:

[Black Copter Control]

General: Be careful.. Half of these things have gotten away on us.
Lieutenant: Don't worry. It was Firtz that missed those other two. I got the beagle. I'll get this one too.

Re:Something else they are worrying about

[MichaelSmith]

They won't know with absolute certainty that everything is ok until the time has passed and the probe comes around the planet.

Its a pity they couldn't organise a relay. There are two spacecraft in mars orbit right now which can relay comms from the ground. You would think that with a few software changes and a bit of planning one of them would be able to at least record telemetry from the spacecraft as it did the burn.

Re:Good PR

[MichaelSmith]

much cheaper and safer than manned (or wo-manned) spaceflight

Says who? Somebody who doesn't want to fly? Watching stuff on TV is always safer than actually going places but I will be stuffed if I am going to waste my life doing that.

Nobody is forcing you to go to mars. Don't project your fears on to other people.

MRO command log...

[Anonymous Coward]

MRO cmd:> set engine burn -t 27.0

  Engine burn duration set to: 27 minutes

MRO cmd:> start engine burn -now

  Begin engine burn sequence: Are you sure? (y/N): y

  Have you calculated for correct distance in meters? (y/N): y

  Are you sure? (y/N): y

  Really sure? (y/N): y

  Remember the others we buried? Sure you want to do this? (y/N): y

OK here goes nothing! Hold your breath!

Executing command sequence...

PROGRESS: 15%

Success!!!!

[ashitaka]

The MRO is succesfully in orbit! Congrats to everyone at JPL.

It always gives me goosebumps watching these events where mission control goes from joking and chatting to pin-drop quiet just before re-acquisition of signal and then the yells and whoops of joy when they lock on.

Great stuff!

Re:Success!!!!

[DestroyAllZombies]

Well, thanks! I'm in the mission control area right now, so here's another score for slashdot. Of course the next six months of aerobraking will be the hardest, but being in orbit is fantastic.