Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is scheduled for Mars Orbital Insertion (MOI) on Friday, March 10, 2009. Confirmation of success should arrive around 3:15 pm MST. Below is a link to a presentation I gave one of my classes today about the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on board MRO, the highest resolution camera every sent on a planetary science mission. [Disclosure: Richard Leis is a HiRISE operations team member.] All of the spacecraft primary science mission cameras are shut down and will not be turned on until after orbital capture, but I have also included a link to a webpage that updates every 5 minutes a simulation of how Mars would look if you were riding along on MRO. Mars is getting close!
- HiRISE Presentation(Powerpoint file) attached to this article
- The view from MRO.