Bling Posted February 28 Report Share Posted February 28 http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/02/27/mars.orbiter.reut/index.htmlWASHINGTON (Reuters) -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is headed into a perilous phase after a seven-month journey from Earth, aiming to start looping around the Red Planet on March 10, space agency officials said on Friday.If it manages to reach its planned orbit, a process that will take another seven months, the spacecraft could collect unprecedented data about Earth's next-door planetary neighbor, which could help scientists determine where to land the next Mars rovers and even to make preliminary plans for a human landing site."It's going to be difficult to get it into orbit," Doug McCuistion, who heads the NASA Mars Exploration Program, said at a briefing. "Mars is hard, Mars can be unpredictable, but we've got a good team here."NASA has only a 65 percent success rate in getting space probes to orbit Mars, as opposed to a more than 80 percent success rate in managing to land spacecrafts on its surface, he said.The tricky part is getting the orbiter to slow down enough to be captured by the planet's gravity."We're getting into the dangerous portion of the mission," said James Graf, the project's manager.At just 15 million miles (24 million kilometers) from Mars, the orbiter has cruised for nearly 300 million miles (480 million kilometers) since its launch on August 12, 2005.As it approaches the planet, controllers on Earth expect a signal from the spacecraft indicating a 27-minute engine burn meant to slow it down and let Martian gravity capture it.At 21 minutes after the engine burn begins, the spacecraft will go behind Mars and be out of radio contact with Earth, and stay that way for another half hour, Graf said.If this procedure -- known as aerobraking -- works, the spacecraft will be in an extremely elliptical orbit around Mars, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) at the closest point and about 35,000 miles (56,000 kilometers) at the farthest.Over the next six months, the spacecraft will use aerobraking and the drag of the Martian atmosphere to reel itself in from an elongated 35-hour orbit to a nearly circular two-hour orbit. When that is accomplished, scientific operations can begin.The orbiter's six scientific instruments are designed to collect more data than all previous Mars probes combined, including information on the planet's weather, color images and even radar to look deep below the Martian surface.Since NASA's exploration of Mars has consistently focused on the search for signs of water -- a requirement for Earth-type life -- the orbiter's instruments will be able to look for any sub-surface clues to this as well, which could give future rovers a place to start looking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Diabolique Posted February 28 Report Share Posted February 28 If mars was a being, it'd be thinking, "YumYUM, new food!" ;D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bling Posted February 28 Author Report Share Posted February 28 LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Diabolique Posted February 28 Report Share Posted February 28 I thought about putting in an explanation for those who aren't familiar with that fact that many things sent to Mars gets sucked into the atmposphere and destroyed somehow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest swirlundergrounder Posted March 1 Report Share Posted March 1 I thought about putting in an explanation for those who aren't familiar with that fact that many things sent to Mars gets sucked into the atmposphere and destroyed somehow. They get destroyed when the face on Mars opens its mouth and swallows them up or blows them away... The fact that they can even land an object on the Red Planet is amazing...!!!Speaking of which I want to go check out the Mars Rover footage that I think is playing at the IMAX theatre! That would be the shit! Go smoke a phatty blunt b4...LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest swirlundergrounder Posted March 1 Report Share Posted March 1 Or they crash into the tallest mountain in the known solar system which is on Mars.... 'Olympus Mons'...Approx 7 times as tall as Mt Everest! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Diabolique Posted March 1 Report Share Posted March 1 "The Martians are coming this way...we must evacuate the city...."name that tune! ;D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ddg Posted March 1 Report Share Posted March 1 there was a really interesting article in the last rolling stone mag on the potential colonization on mars....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest swirlundergrounder Posted March 1 Report Share Posted March 1 there was a really interesting article in the last rolling stone mag on the potential colonization on mars.......It has to happen eventually.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest swirlundergrounder Posted March 1 Report Share Posted March 1 "The Martians are coming this way...we must evacuate the city...."name that tune! ;D????? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ddg Posted March 1 Report Share Posted March 1 there was a really interesting article in the last rolling stone mag on the potential colonization on mars.......It has to happen eventually..i think it has to as well...but its interesting bc mars is uninhatible to us...one interesting thing would be that since there is no water there, we would have to convert our urine to water for drinking......ugggh...lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bling Posted March 1 Author Report Share Posted March 1 even if we have to do that id def drink my own purified urine for the chance of living on marsi mean ur on mars for goodness sake thats as cool as it gets Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LeVeL Posted March 1 Report Share Posted March 1 even if we have to do that id def drink my own purified urine for the chance of living on marsi mean ur on mars for goodness sake thats as cool as it gets Bling there is no deep house in Mars..lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryan2772 Posted March 1 Report Share Posted March 1 'Olympus Mons'that looks like a nippleuh huh huh huh huh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest swirlundergrounder Posted March 1 Report Share Posted March 1 there was a really interesting article in the last rolling stone mag on the potential colonization on mars.......It has to happen eventually..i think it has to as well...but its interesting bc mars is uninhatible to us...one interesting thing would be that since there is no water there, we would have to convert our urine to water for drinking......ugggh...lolAh but Mars is just a stepping stone to colonizing Europa (One of Jupiters moons) which is suspected to have water below it's thick cold icey surface from ice melted by volcanic vents.Check out the linkhttp://www.nineplanets.org/europa.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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