Working for the Mars Program: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)

2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)

Welcome to Mars, "Mr. O!"

NASA's newest orbiter arrived safely in orbit on March 10, 2006.

You could describe MRO as "Super Orbiter" because it's bigger, has extremely high-powered "vision" and a very high rate of data return. MRO even has "x-ray" vision in the sense that it's SHARAD antenna is able to see under the surface.

MRO was launched on April 12, 2005

MRO was launched on August 12, 2005 and arrived safely in orbit on March 10, 2006. This is a poster that was part of the MRO launch day information packet. That's my picture of MRO during Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) next to the Atlas 5 rocket.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter size compared to Mars Global Surveyor and Odyssey. All three orbiter images were created by me.

How big is MRO? It's solar panel "wing-span" measures 44 feet across when fully extended and the spacecraft stands 22 feet high.

Some of the MRO images I've created

"The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter - More Than Just A Pretty Robot"

It's also a well-illustrated robot, judging by the more than 5 of my MRO images used in just this article!

The best Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter links

Location of my MRO artwork in the Planetary Photojournal

Jan. 7, 2005: I was fortunate to be asked to go see MRO at Lockheed in Denver, Colorado and take pictures. It was an unforgettable experience. Below is a picture of MRO in the clean room that I captured by taking multiple images up close and then combining them. It was a very difficult trip on such short notice (about 5 minutes) but I did it and I'm glad I did - even though I only managed to get about an hour sleep the night before the tour. I didn't bother going to see the launch after such a closeup view of the orbiter itself. I know MRO very well, after having worked on the art images for so long and from seeing it only a few feet away.

The SHARAD antenna will search for underground water and ice by sending radar pulses down to the surface and then collecting the signals. The Shallow Radar (SHARAD) instrument is a joint experiment of both NASA and ASI, the Italian Space Agency.

SHARAD updates

Northrop Grumman-Built Antenna Deploys To Seek Water Under Mars, Sept. 20, 2006

Archived October, 2004 webcast from Von Karman Auditorium at JPL in Pasadena

"Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter: An Unprecedented Look at Mars"

Presented by Dr. Jim Graf
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project Manager

I have created a series of MRO images, like the one I'm standing next to above. That light box is part of a prominently located display at JPL. I'm wearing my MRO insignia jacket. Nearby is a large half-size model of MRO.

Vice-President Cheney's JPL tour included my artwork

Vice President Cheney visited JPL to congratulate us for the successful landing of the Spirit rover and was given a high-level tour. It included the MRO display. In the picture below he is listening to then-MER project manager Pete Theisinger explain Spirit's landing system. On the back wall (left) is my MRO image, on the right is the MRO model. I won't name everyone in the picture but they are all very important people. The Vice-President's visit was one of the highlights of my JPL career and I've had some big ones. Barely a week later the VP's visit to JPL Pres. Bush outlined his vision for the future of NASA, the new Moon-Mars initiative. It had been under development but not publicly announced until a short time after the successful rover landing. It was just an awesome week, what else can I say!

Oh, yes, let's not forget MRO manager, Jim Graf, who is just barely visible directly behind Mr. Cheney. Jim was fun to work for but kept me pretty busy. MRO is the next Mars mission after the rovers and it's now getting close to launch on Aug. 10, 2005 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

My lifesize MRO artwork at Lockheed in Denver

Click on the link above to see Lockheed's MRO page. It's wonderful to see my artwork on their page. Lockheed's astronautics division uses my images of MGS, Odyssey and the Phoenix Mars Lander as well as my MRO images. To me that's certainly one of the highest compliment I have received on my artwork.

MRO patch
This is a patch that uses my early MRO artwork.

MRO watches with my artwork.