Mro On Approach, TCM-3 not required Options

[Redstone]

MRO has shifted from the cruise phase to Approach phase. Apparently, the trajectory is so good that TCM-3 was cancelled. This is good news for the prospects for a long life for MRO supporting future missions. TCM-4 is on Feb 28, and MOI on March 10. Only 5 weeks away!

[djellison]

http://bookstore.spie.org/index.cfm?fuseac...d=619857&coden=

Abstract
The Optical Navigation Camera (ONC) is part of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) scheduled for an August 2005 launch. The design is a 500 mm focal length, F/8.3 Ritchey-Chretien with a refractive field corrector. Prior to flight, the off-axis performance of the ONC was measured at visible wavelengths in the off-axis scatter facility at the Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL). This unique facility is designed to minimize scatter from the test setup to prevent data corruption. Testing was conducted in a clean room environment, and the results indicate that no detectable contamination of the optics occurred during testing. Measurements were taken in two time frames to correct an unanticipated stray light path, which occurred just outside of the sensor's field-of-view. The source of the offending path was identified as scatter from the edges of the field corrector lenses. Specifically, scatter from the interface between the flat ground glass and polished surfaces resulted in significant "humps" in the off-axis response centered at ± 1.5°. Retesting showed the removal of the humps, and an overall satisfactory performance of the ONC. The troubleshooting, correction, and lessons learned regarding the above stray light path was reported on in an earlier paper. This paper discusses the measurement process, results, and a comparison to a software prediction and other planetary sensors. The measurement validated the final stray light design and complemented the software analysis.

Very little info out there though. That's about all I could find.