Talk:Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

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[edit] PSP

Okay folks, PSP is just around the corner, final testing for MRO starts this week! Yah! But, that means we're going to have to go through this site quite a bit. I know there's probably alot of "This instrument will do this" type of references, we should work on changing them to the present tense. I beleive that we now have all instruments on line, ei, there isn't really anything else major that can go wrong in the transition phase, we'll find out when transition imaging takes place at the end of this month. I think we should polish this article up, and push for a FA in early October, about the time that the solar conjuction is taking place. That means the results of the vote should be done by the end of solar conjunction, just in time for PSP:-) I'm going to remove the current event tag, as there isn't really that much more to be had in the way of current events. I also took the oporunity to archive the talk page, it was needing it, and it's a good time to start again. Comments? Tuvas 17:45, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

What will being FA do? I would rather wait until after the primary science mission is over. --BerserkerBen 11:24, 19 September 2006 (UTC)
Wait 2 years?? Thast a bit much. I would prefer to wait until the science mission gets underway for a little bit and preferrably until after it sends back its first high quality photo. At that point all of the article execpt one or two sentances will be in past tense. After that I can't imagine many peopel will think the article could change alot. -Ravedave (help name my baby) 16:59, 19 September 2006 (UTC)
High-quality photos from all of the instuments will be avaliable in the next few weeks. I totally agree, two years is a bit excesive... HiRISE takes it's next pictures on Oct. 29th, SHARAD has already taken pictures, as has MCS. I think MARCI has too, but, I'd have to check that one out for sure... CTX and CRISM are both about the same time as HiRISE (I don't have the exact table in front of me, but everything I've seen says it'll be about the same time). Since MRO is in it's final orbit, all of these things are the real deal, so... Of course, they won't be released to the public right away, so, it might be better for those. HiRISE will release it's first image the 29th, ASAP, the rest of the images will also be released as they come in, for the most part (Exceptions being ones that might have a press release behind them). Among the sights will be Victoria Crater, current home of Opportunity. Should be fun, I can't wait:-) However, if the previous case is to show us what to expect, we can expect that the other instruments will lag (HiRISE has the fastest turnover, however, it also has the most money of any of the instruments, thus the most resources...) Tuvas 03:55, 20 September 2006 (UTC)
What about scientific discovers made by MRO? Can the article be made a FA without considering the vast amount of information that as you mention are just days away from just starting to be delivered. I can see people at a FA discussion opposing FA status using my argument. By the way what will getting FA statues provide now that can’t wait 2 years? --BerserkerBen 22:45, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Other cameras

Why can't the "other cameras" get there own labels, other instruments like the MCS and SHARAD which have equally small amount of text get their own titles. I think for aesthetics and NPOV that those cameras get there own titles. If there are no objections I will make the changes within days. --BerserkerBen 20:57, 25 September 2006 (UTC) There I did it now if we could get a picture of MCS all the insterments will ahve their own picture.--BerserkerBen 16:19, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Peer Review

I think it might be a good time to request a new peer review, there have been quite a few changes since the last one, and I wouldn't mind an extra set of eyes to make sure we got everything ready for PSP. Tuvas 19:04, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Just FYI

For anyone interested, all instruments on MRO have been turned on, deployed, lens caps removed, etc, for the first time ever!!! So, everything is now set for transition imaging, which will begin Friday, at least for HiRISE, I don't know about the other instruments... Still, it's exciting! Tuvas 23:18, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

Another update, two instruments released their first images today from Science orbit, HiRISE and CRISM. I can get the links the the sites if you want them, but they are pretty easy to find. I don't have time at the moment to post anything, but you might want to update them. Tuvas 23:20, 29 September 2006 (UTC)
Wow amazing pictures! I've uploaded the one HiRISE image Image:MRO first image from mapping orbit PIA08789.jpg, please feel free to use it! --Bricktop 00:01, 30 September 2006 (UTC)
Just wait till the full image comes up. There are things I'm still thinking, wow, that's just amazing, and it's only the begining... I can't remember off the top of my head, but the number 10000 seems to stick out in my head, as the number of images we'll eventually receive... And this image is only a fraction of the first... Tuvas 01:00, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Timeline

We've been ignoring the Timeline of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter page, I think I've got it mostly up to date, with a few of the notable future dates now listed. You might want to check it, and make sure. Tuvas 05:26, 28 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] images

Checkout this cool image...

Victoria crater with rover Opportunity a crater's edge taken by the HiRISE camera on board Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
Victoria crater with rover Opportunity a crater's edge taken by the HiRISE camera on board Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
yowzah, that's impressive.. Mlm42 20:06, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
I thought it was pretty amazing how the shadow of the mast could be seen. Maybe I should crop it and add it to the article to show the resolution that can be accomplished. -Ravedave (help name my baby) 01:13, 10 October 2006 (UTC)


If we put that image in we should start to worry about how big the "Events and discoveries" is going to be 1-2 years if we keep adding images at a rate of 1 a month. Is there any way we could get a image of opportunity taken by MRO orbiter with some deconvolution routines run on it, or have they already done that?--BerserkerBen 02:10, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
All images released to the public from HiRISE have been deconvoluted. But that mainly only matters for the high-precision measurements, HiRISE by itself is able to be within 100 counts or so even without processing, with 16k possibilities. And yes, there are some geometric features and such that are corrected, but the products released are the most accurate representation that we can get, and they get more accurate constantly. However, it is an exciting thing, we'll worry about an increasingly large events and discovery section when there's alot more things there... Tuvas 21:10, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
It is just that it looks like the color layers are not matted well, they seem to be slightly off from each other, but what ever. I'm going to move the timeline link down to discovers & events section. --BerserkerBen 15:00, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

I took a bit of a break from MRO, but if I can interject a suggestion: what about creating a "Results from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter" article (or "Discoveries" or similar)? (1) It can be stubby at first and just grow as results like this image come it. (2) You could nominate some headlines for the "Current Events" section on the mainpage. (3) It would also preserve the stability of this page until a list of published results come out and can be added (if you desire).--Will.i.am 06:33, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Orbit

Can anyone find details on the current orbit for addition to the infobox? -Ravedave (help name my baby) 19:48, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

See [1]: The altitude of the orbit ranges from 250 kilometers (155 miles) to 316 kilometers (196 miles) above the surface. --Bricktop 04:04, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] MRO fails to find MGS

"NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has failed to spot the silent Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft. The agency will next call on the Opportunity rover to listen for the missing spacecraft's radio beacon, though mission members say MGS may already be dead." [2]. Not sure if its inclusion worthy. -Ravedave (help name my baby) 05:21, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] mission duration

Is the mission duration the time the it is active or the time it is doing science? [3] -Ravedave (help name my baby) 06:01, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

MRO will (hopefully!) be doing science for several years to come, maybe a decade or more, but it's primary science phase will only last 2 years, after which it will do science still, but it will continue to do other things as well. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.214.161.240 (talk) 05:32, 7 February 2007 (UTC).

All NASA exploration missions have a short nominal duration, based on the time required to achieve the goals in the original proposal, and the initial budget. If everything is still working, and the mission is still producing valuable scientific data, they're always extended indefinitely. Satellites normally carry enough fuel to maintain their orbit for several years. The mission duration has more to do with politics, budgets, and ass-covering (the manufacturers don't want to be held accountable for dysfunctionality beyond the original proposal, and rightfully so) than with the actual expected operational life of the spacecraft. Aside from MRO, every active Mars mission is years beyond its nominal phase. It's a nice benchmark to declare "mission accomplished", and everyone comes out a winner when something like Odyssey or the Rovers are still going strong years later.James A. Stewart 23:35, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] reference

  • Lee, S.W.; Skulsky, E.D.; Chapel, J.; Cwynar, D.; Gehling, R.; Delamere, A. (2003). "Mars reconnaissance orbiter design approach for high-resolution surface imaging". Advances in the Astronautical Sciences 113: 509-528. 

[edit] Tense

The article is a jumble of past, present and future tense sentences, someone needs to go through the article and fix these things. For example: "MRO will carry a variety of engineering instruments" needs to be change to "MRO carries a variety of engineering instruments" and that just one of many many sentances that states things that have already happened. Now this is just my idea but I think it would be best to make as many past tense statements as possible, as things that have happened don't need to be changed in the future. For example: "MRO joins four other spacecraft currently studying Mars: Mars Express, Mars Odyssey, and two Mars Exploration Rovers." might be better as "MRO joined five other spacecraft at that time studying Mars: Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, and two Mars Exploration Rovers." This way future corrections to the statements are not needed. If no one objects eventually I'll get on it--BerserkerBen 03:56, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Mostly done. I may have changed some things from "will" to does without obtaining correct facts such as the prediction that 70% of the fuel would be used on orbital insertion. I think the article is ok for now though. I think in 3-6 months when there is more information released the article can be updated and cleaned up. -Ravedave (Adopt a State) 18:24, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] News

[4] -Ravedave 19:19, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] CTX camera

I'm confused from the article whether the CTX camera is taking images 30 or 40km across. Both figures are given. Maybe this could be checked and corrected? Or if correct but in different contexts, it could be reworded to be more clear? sjwk 00:50, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

The cited link and this link give 30 km so I just deleted the 40 km reference. -- JamesHoadley (talk) 13:14, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] HiRise catches avalanches in action

To add - HiRise catches avalanches in action- http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_007338_2640 - Ravedave (talk) 18:55, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] HiRise takes picture of Earth and the Moon from Mars

Hi,

I think the picture on this site: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/mro20080303earth.html would be worth adding to the page. It's the Earth and the Moon photographed by the HiRise camera from Mars. Anybody bother? (March 6, 2008, 09.20 MET) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.132.248.80 (talk) 08:21, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

I've uploaded it to Wikimeda Commons; but to be honest, I got no idea as of where in the article I should insert it; it's pretty full of images already. --Harald Khan Ճ 19:47, 12 April 2008 (UTC)