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!

[Toma B]

Is there any planed imaging with HiRISE on approach to Mars?
If not, why not?

[ugordan]

There's always a good reason for not performing observations shortly before orbit insertion. The latter is such a critical maneuver that the spacecraft team doesn't want to take any chances that might jeopardize the entire mission. When you use the instruments on board, they can always report a fault state due to various reasons and cause the S/C to go into safe mode which will then obviously just sit around and wait to hear from Earth.
Obviously, if a safing event happened shortly before orbit insertion the whole mission could go down the drain. That's why we typically get imaging after the maneuver and only on some missions a very distant image of the target well before the arrival.