Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Mission

Kind: Mars orbiter

State: Operational

Place: Mars

Operator: NASA / JPL

Date

Start:

Duration: Primary mission: 2 yearsElapsed: 14 years, 4 months and 17 days from launch13 years, 9 months and 19 days (4907 sols) at Mars

Mission Ending

"Life's like a movie, write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending." - Jim Henson

Rocket

Rocket: Atlas V 401

Kind: NASA / JPL

Manufacturer: Lockheed Martin / University of Arizona / APL / ASI / Malin Space Science Systems

Mass: 2,180 kg (4,810 lb)

Launch Site: Cape Canaveral SLC-41

Flyby

"Requesting permission for flyby." Maverick - Top Gun

Orbit

Reference System: Areocentric

1º Orbit: Mars

Lander

"The journey, not the arrival, matters; the voyage, not the landing." - Paul Theroux

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is a multipurpose spacecraft designed to conduct reconnaissance and exploration of Mars from orbit. The US$720 million spacecraft was built by Lockheed Martin under the supervision of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The mission is managed by the California Institute of Technology, at the JPL, in Pasadena, California, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. It was launched August 12, 2005, and attained Martian orbit on March 10, 2006. In November 2006, after five months of aerobraking, it entered its final science orbit and began its primary science phase. MRO contains a host of scientific instruments such as cameras, spectrometers, and radar, which are used to analyze the landforms, stratigraphy, minerals, and ice of Mars. It paves the way for future spacecraft by monitoring Mars' daily weather and surface conditions, studying potential landing sites, and hosting a new telecommunications system. MRO's telecommunications system will transfer more data back to Earth than all previous interplanetary missions combined, and MRO will serve as a highly capable relay satellite for future missions. It has enough propellant to keep functioning into the 2030s.