LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Reconnaissance: Red Planet
built 607 days ago
In its survey of the red planet, Mars Reconnaissance will increase tenfold the number of spots surveyed close-up. One of the Mars Reconnaissance orbiter's cameras is the largest ever flown on a planetary mission. While previous cameras on other Mars orbiters could identify objects no smaller than a school bus, this camera will be able to spot something as small as a dinner table. That capability will ... allow the orbiter to identify obstacles like large rocks that could jeopardize the safety of future landers and rovers. Its imaging spectrometer will also be able to look at small-scale areas about five times smaller than a football field, at a scale perfect for identifying any hot springs or other small water features.
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NASA's newest Mars spacecraft, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, completed its aerobraking phase last week, settling into an orbit that takes it around the red planet in just under two hours instead of the 36-hour circuit it started with. It took five months to maneuver it into this desired orbit using the tricky technique known as aerobraking — dipping into the planet's atmosphere to slow the spacecraft and reshape its orbit — but it saved about $15 million, said Jim Murphy, head of the astronomy department at New Mexico State University. That's about what it would have cost to carry enough fuel to use the spacecraft's rocket engines to maneuver it into the desired orbit, he said.
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With two weeks until its arrival at the red planet, NASA and Lockheed Martin officials hold this Feb. 24 news conference on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The briefing explains how the MRO spacecraft will fire its engines to enter into orbit around Mars and the mission's scientific goals to examine the planet like never before.
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