Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Launched August 12, 2005, the MRO is the most advanced spacecraft yet sent to Mars.

SHARAD – Shallow Subsurface Radar (probes beneath the surface) MCS - Mars Climate Sounder (atmospheric conditions (T, water vapor, etc.) CRISIM – Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (multispectral VIR imager) HiRISE – High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (pretty self-explanitoory) MARCI – Mars Color Imager (clouds, dust storms) CTX – Context Camera (wide-angle views)

The Shallow Radar (SHARAD) will probe beneath the surface of Mars, up to a depth of about 1 km, and is able to search for ice and liquid water there.
	Mars Climate Sounder will look horizontally above the horizon to get the run of temperature, pressure, dust opacity, and water vapor as a function of height in the atmosphere. It will also look downward to get the column abundances (how much per 1 meter square column from the spacecraft to the ground) of dust and water vapor.

This HiRISE image shows a section pf Candor Chasma, part of the Valles Marineris complex. The region exhibits a tectonic fracture running diagonally. A the bedrock erodes, it is leaving ridge-shaped features which geologists believe was produced by fluid alteration. The image is about 1 km wide.	The edge of Victoria crater, showing what may be fractures, surrounded by chemically cemented sedimentary bedrock.

Sand dunes in Russell Crater. The source of the gullies is unknown. They do not seem to end in the sort of deposits seen in other gully structures on Mars. They may be caused by avalanches triggered by the rapid sublimation of frost (CO2?) and the production of a fluidized flow of material.	The north polar layered deposits. This layering is caused by the repeated deposition and removal of dust and ice, and allows scientists to study long-term climatic changes on Mars.

HiRISE locates the landing site of the Mars Pathfinder

Viking landing sites….

Viking 1 Lander	Viking 2 Lander

And of course the MER sites..

	HiRISE following the progress of Opportunity around the rim of Victoria Crater

Animation of “fly-arounds” of Columbia Hills and Victoria Crater:

http://www.physics.uc.edu/~sitko/AdvancedAstro/24-MRO/171469main_Columbia480.mov

http://www.physics.uc.edu/~sitko/AdvancedAstro/24-MRO/171471main_Victoria480.mov

SHARAD probes the south polar region. The bright layer at a depth of 800 m marks the bottom of the layered terrain near the south polar cap.

CRISM samples the nature of the surface	CRISM probes seasonal frost in the rim of a crater in the Terra Sirenum region

Early image by the MCS. The left image was taken ay 0.3-3 mm wavelength, and shows reflected light. The middle image is at 12 mm, and shows emission by water vapor. The right image is at 15 mm and shows the CO₂. The first 2 are roughly comparable to visible-light and water-vapor satellite images of the Earth taken by weather satellites: http://www.goes.noaa.gov/. These images were taken about 150 times further away from the planet than during the main science phase of the spacecraft.

The exploration of Mars by the MRO is only just beginning………..