14 DAY TRIAL // The forth and most sophisticated satellite around Mars has successfully completed a tricky maneuver. The $720 million Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission is expected to gather more data than all previous Martian missions combined. It will orbit Mars for at least four years in low altitude mapping the surface, the underground and the atmosphere, searching for water and for the best places where future robotic and maybe even manned missions could land.
The maneuver involved firing the engines for 27 minutes in order to slow down and to get caught by Mars' gravitational field. The speed of the spacecraft was more than 17,000km/h. The move wasn't without suspense as it implicated getting behind the Red Planet - and thus temporarily being out of radio contact with controllers at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
The probe reappeared exactly as planned and it signaled that it had successfully entered the elliptical orbit. The closest point of this orbit is at around 400 kilometers above the surface. During the next seven months, the spacecraft needs to gradually get into an almost circular orbit. In order to do this it will use a technique called "aerobraking," which involves taking a number of dips into Mars' upper atmosphere. The technique has also been used successfully by the Mars Global Surveyor in 1997. The spacecraft has to use aerobracking because it does not have enough fuel to slow down on its own - more fuel would have meant fewer scientific instruments.
The project manager Jim Graf said at the news conference after the maneuver that he expects that Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter "will rewrite the science textbooks on Mars".
Besides mapping Mars, the satellite is also designed to serve as communication relay for future missions on the surface, such as the Phoenix Mars Scout, which is scheduled to explore Mars' north pole in 2008 and the Mars Science Laboratory, a rover that will probably be launched in 2009.
Picture credit: Controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA)