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NASA Releases First Mars Images from Two Orbiter Cameras

Science instruments to begin examination of Red Planet in six months

Researchers released the first Mars images April 13 from two of three science cameras on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The orbiter launched August 11, 2005, and achieved orbit on March 10. Its mission is collecting data to understand the planet's water riddles and advance exploration of the mysterious Red Planet.

Images taken by the orbiter's Context Camera and Mars Color Imager during the first tests of the instruments in planetary orbit confirm the cameras' performance capability even though the test images were taken from nearly 10 times as far from the planet as the spacecraft will be when it achieves the intended orbit, according to an April 13 NASA press release.

Test images from the third camera of the science payload were released March 24.

"The test images show that both cameras will meet or exceed their performance requirements once they're in the low-altitude science orbit," said Michael Malin, team leader for the Context Camera and principal investigator for the Mars Color Imager.

"We're looking forward to that time with great anticipation," he added.

The cameras took the test images two weeks after the orbiter's March 10 arrival at Mars and before the start of "aerobraking," a process of reshaping the orbit by using controlled contact with the Mars atmosphere.

This week, the spacecraft is dipping into Mars' upper atmosphere as it approaches the altitude range that it will use for shrinking its orbit gradually over the next six months. The orbiter now is flying in very elongated loops around Mars. Each circuit lasts about 35 hours and takes the spacecraft about 43,000 kilometers away from the planet before swinging back in close.

On April 12, a short burn of intermediate-sized thrusters while the orbiter was at the most distant point nudged the spacecraft to pass from about 112 kilometers to within 107 kilometers of Mars' surface.

"This brings us well into Mars' upper atmosphere for the drag pass," said Deputy Mission Manager Dan Johnston of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, "and will enable the mission to start reducing the orbit to its final science altitude."

After hundreds of passes through the upper atmosphere, the drag gradually will reduce the far point of the orbit until the spacecraft establishes a nearly circular orbit every two hours. Once the spacecraft gets into the proper orbit for its primary science phase, the six science instruments on board will begin their systematic examination of Mars.

Source: U.S. Department of State