NASA's Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched on Aug. 12, has completed one of
the first tasks of its seven-month cruise to Mars, a calibration
activity for the spacecraft's Mars Color Imager instrument.
"We have transitioned from launch mode to cruise mode, and the
spacecraft continues to perform extremely well," said Dan Johnston,
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter deputy mission manager at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
The first and largest of four trajectory correction maneuvers
scheduled before the orbiter reaches Mars is planned for Aug.
27.
For the calibration task on Aug. 15, the spacecraft slewed about
15 degrees to scan the camera across the positions of the Earth and
Moon, then returned to the attitude it will hold for most of the
cruise.
Data were properly recorded onboard, downlinked to Earth and
received by the Mars Color Imager team at Malin Space Science
Systems, San Diego. Dr. Michael Malin of Malin Space Science
Systems, principal investigator for Mars Color Imager, said the
image data are being processed and analyzed.
This multiple-waveband camera is the widest-angle instrument of
four cameras on the orbiter, designed for imaging all of Mars daily
from an altitude of about 300 kilometers (186 miles). Imaged at a
range of more than 1 million kilometers (620,000 miles) away, the
crescent Earth and Moon fill only a few pixels and are not resolved
in the image. However, this is enough useful information to
characterize the instrument's response in its seven color bands,
including two ultraviolet channels that will be used to trace ozone
in the Mars atmosphere.
This is the first of two events early in the cruise phase that
check instrument calibrations after launching. The second will
occur in early September when higher resolution cameras are pointed
at Earth and the Moon as the spacecraft continues its flight to
Mars.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will reach Mars and enter orbit
on about March 10, 2006. After gradually adjusting the shape of its
orbit for half a year, it will begin its primary science phase in
November 2006. The mission will examine Mars in unprecedented
detail from low orbit, returning several times more data than all
previous Mars missions combined. Scientists will use its
instruments to gain a better understanding of the history and
current distribution of Mars' water. By inspecting possible landing
sites and by providing a high-data-rate relay, it will also support
future missions that land on Mars.