Timeline of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Major events in the launch, aerobraking, and transition phases of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

1 Launch and cruise timeline
2 Orbital insertion/ Aerobraking timeline
3 Transition timeline
4 Mission events
5 References

[edit] Launch and cruise timeline

Wikinews has related news:

April 30, 2005: the MRO spacecraft was delivered to the launch site.
August 9, 2005: the August 10 launch opportunity was postponed because of reliability concerns over the Atlas V's gyroscopes.
August 10, 2005: concerns over the gyroscopes were resolved. Launch was scheduled for 7:50 am EST, August 11.
August 11, 2005: concerns over weather cause a rescheduling of the launch to 9:00 am EST. Conflicting sensor readings during fueling of the Centaur stage's liquid hydrogen fuel tank could not be corrected in time, causing the launch to be scrubbed and rescheduled for 7:43 am EST August 12.^[1]
August 12, 2005: at 7:43 am EST, MRO was launched. There were no significant anomalies reported during launch and deployment into interplanetary transfer orbit.
August 15, 2005: MARCI was tested and calibrated.
August 25, 2005: at 15:19:32 UTC, MRO was 100 million kilometers from Mars.
August 27, 2005: the first trajectory correction maneuver was executed. The burn used the same main thrusters that are needed for the orbital insertion maneuver and lasted 15 seconds. A velocity change of 7.8 m/s was achieved.
September 8, 2005: MRO completed calibration and testing of the HiRISE and CTX cameras by taking pictures of the Moon from 10 million kilometers away.
November 18, 2005: MRO underwent its second scheduled course correction by firing its 6 medium thrusters for 20 seconds and changing its velocity by 75 cm/s.
January 29, 2006: at 06:59:24 UTC, MRO was 10 million kilometers from Mars.
February 3, 2006: MRO began the Approach Phase, in preparation for orbital insertion.

[edit] Orbital insertion/ Aerobraking timeline

First image of Mars from the HiRISE camera

March 10, 2006: MRO successfully completed orbital insertion.
March 23, 2006: test images from three of MRO's cameras were taken. HiRISE images were taken over the course of two orbits, the first returned from a height of 2500 km (at about ten times poorer resolution than when the camera is in its final orbit). The CTX and MARCI cameras also took test images.^[2]^[3]
March 30, 2006: MRO fired its intermediate thrusters for 58 seconds and dropped its periapsis by 94 km, in preparation to begin aerobraking.
April 7, 2006: MRO begins a seven month long Aerobraking Stage to reduce its highly elliptical orbit to a circular, low Mars orbit by mid-November.
August 30, 2006: Aerobraking ended with a 6 minute burn of MRO's Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM) thrusters.^[4]
September 5, 2006: The first of two burns to correctly position MRO into its final science orbit was performed.
September 11, 2006: The second of two burns to finalize MRO's orbit was performed, officially ending the Aerobraking Stage.

[edit] Transition timeline

September 16, 2006: SHARAD was successfully deployed from MRO.^[5]
September 24, 2006: MCS and MARCI commenced operations, commencing a martian weather forecast.
September 27, 2006: CRISM was powered on for the first time in space, and its lens cap was removed. In addition, SHARAD, HiRISE, and CTX were also powered on for the first time.^[6]
September 28, 2006: CRISM took its first picture at Mars.

[edit] Mission events

This article or section needs to be updated.
Please update the article to reflect recent events / newly available information, and remove this template when finished.

The HiRISE camera images the Phoenix lander suspended from its parachute during descent through the Martian atmosphere.

September 29, 2006: All instruments will be tested from the science orbit.
October 5, 2006: Instruments will be powered down for the Solar Conjunction.
November 2006: Primary Science Phase (PSP) commences.
2008-05-25: HiRISE photographs Phoenix during its descent through the Martian atmosphere to a landing in Vastitas Borealis, making MRO the first probe to photograph another probe landing on the surface of another planet (not including our Moon).