NASA celebrates MRO’s tenth functional year

NASA has been after the red planet for a long period of time and today, with the tenth anniversary of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, NASA looks even more resolute in their missions. The MRO was propelled by a United launch Alliance Atlas V Rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The tenth birthday of the Orbiter is one of the biggest advancements of the agency in learning about Mars. Mars has been the planet of study for too long and has shown promise about supporting life. A lot of the information that we know about this planet have been made available by the MRO. The journey undertaken by the MRO was several months long and it finally arrived on the planet in March 2006. The science mission of the MRO was supposed to last for 2 Earth years or one Martian year. However, ten years later, it is still going on and the MRO is continuously exploring Mars and trying to collect any data or any traces of life form of any kind which would prove to be useful for the humankind.

Image Source: dailytimesgazette.com

The main aim of the mission was to find any evidence of water available on the surface or the sub surface of Mars. MRO has also proved to be useful in assisting the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers in relaying data to Earth. The relaying of signals is very important as the constant communication between Earth and the rover needs to be maintained so that data can be exchanged and the rovers can be instructed to perform various tasks. MRO also helps NASA to determine the sites that have the capability to qualify for possible human or robotic missions.

The MRO project scientist said in a statement,” Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has found evidence of diverse watery environments on early Mars, some more habitable that the others. MRO s discovered that Mars’s south polar cap holds enough buried carbon di oxide ice to double the planets current atmosphere if it’s warmed. It’s caught avalanches and dust storms in action.” He also said that the life of the rover has enabled NASA to hold long term studies over a period of time. The scientists also said that they had managed to bring back an astonishing amount of data amounting to 250 terabits and even after 40,000 orbits the mission still looks promising and is helping in other challenges like taking photos of comets last year.