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!

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

The MRO arrival press kit is now up:

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Arrival at Mars
posted Feb. 24, 2006 (984 Kb)

[mcaplinger]

The MRO arrival press kit is now up...

"The three cameras from the science payload -- the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, the Context
Camera, and the Mars Color Imager -- will take their first test images of Mars as the orbiter passes low over the southern hemisphere near the end of the third orbit, on March 14."

Now that the press kit has let this out of the bag, I'll note that the timing and location moved by ~2 hours and ~30 degrees of longitude between the mid-January predict and the most recent one -- so the imaged areas will be in the southern hemisphere, but we probably won't know exactly where until after MOI.

I don't know yet when we can expect to have the image data back.