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Using its high-tech mineral detector, MRO finds water frost (shaded in blue) on a crater rim.
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Studies of recent Martian climate change are on the rise with new data from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Much as scientists study Earth's ice ages through layered deposits, the science team is seeking clues to Mars' past by studying ice-rich layers at the Martian poles. The mineral gypsum and clay minerals found at the poles will be important, as they are indicators of wet conditions on Mars in the past. Radar penetrations that reveal thickness and fine-scale layering will also help define climate variations and environmental conditions on Mars over time.
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Viking 30th Anniversary stories

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured glimpses of its ancestors and sister spacecraft from the orbiter's soaring vantage point.
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University of Arizona Release

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Some new, high resolution images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show channels in a fossil delta, troughs in sand dunes and hardware from the landing of the rover Opportunity.
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NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has successfully tested another key part of its payload, a versatile radio for relaying communications with robots on the surface of Mars.
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For a brief time, the sun will get in the way of communications between Earth and Mars spacecraft, but mission teams are well prepared for this natural event called solar conjunction.
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Full story from Johns Hopkins University

NASA's latest orbiter to visit Mars achieved another mark of success this week. The mineral-mapping instrument on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has successfully removed its lens cover and is ready to start observing the planet. This comes on the heels of a successful test of the orbiter's subsurface radar antenna. This period of powering on instruments and completing calibrations leads up to the orbiter's primary science phase, beginning in November 2006.
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Scientists and engineers waited anxiously for word that SHARAD, the Shallow Subsurface Radar antenna aboard Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, was extended and functioning properly. Cheers and applause filled the mission support area when tests confirmed that the antenna is working and ready to begin scoping out the subsurface of Mars.
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NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter fired its six intermediate-size thrusters for 210 seconds Tuesday in a maneuver to make the shape of its orbit closer to the planned geometry for the mission's main science phase, beginning in November.
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Nearly six months after it entered orbit, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has concluded its aerobraking phase. The spacecraft had been dipping in and out of the red planet's atmosphere to adjust its orbit. On August 30, 2006, during its 445th orbit, the spacecraft fired its intermediate thrusters to raise the low point of its orbit and stop dipping into the atmosphere.
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NASA's latest orbiter to visit the Red Planet is well into its main phase of aerobraking. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has cut about 10 hours off of its initial orbit by strategically dipping in and out of Mars' thin atmosphere.
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After a nearly flawless entry into martian orbit, what is next for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter? Six months of precise aerobraking will position the spacecraft for optimal science return.
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Sleep is secondary to Dr. Alfred McEwen and his HiRISE team. They are eager to see what their instrument is seeing from orbit around Mars. Scientists and engineers at the University of Arizona are gearing up to see the first test images of Mars taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera.
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Streams of data poured in overnight as excited engineers and scientists waited to see what the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera was seeing from orbit around Mars. The results were worth waiting up for! Share in the excitement of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's first images from orbit.
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Scientists and engineers at the University of Arizona are gearing up to see the first test images of Mars taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera.
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Cheers of joy filled the mission control area at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory today as its latest mission to Mars met a critical mission milestone: Mars orbit insertion. At 2:16 p.m. (PST), ground controllers were informed by the Deep Space Network that they had locked up on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's signal as the spacecraft reappeared above Mars. This communication was a tremendous relief to the mission team as they had to wait nearly half an hour for their spacecraft to emerge from behind the red planet and back into range so that radio signals could again be transmitted. A few minutes later, it was confirmed that the orbiter was captured into the intended initial orbit.
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Tracy Drain ticks off the complex chain of mission planning and software programming required for NASA's latest Mars orbiter to reach its destination.
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This diagram illustrates the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's journey from launch to Mars. The inner circle (blue) represents Earth in orbit around the Sun (center). The green and yellow line represents the spacecraft on its way to Mars. The outer (red) circle represents Mars in orbit around the Sun. Four major stages of the mission are labeled: launch, cruise, approach and Mars orbit insertion. Also labeled are the opportunities for trajectory correction maneuvers, or chances to tweak the orbiter's path. The third trajectory correction maneuver was deemed unnecessary due to the precision of the spacecraft's current path.
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