Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

Spacecraft· NASAactive

MRO — high-resolution Mars imaging and the planet's primary communications relay.

Open in 3D viewSee Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in the live, interactive 3D map

Key facts

Current speed

3.4 km/s

Distance from Sun

1.5 AU

Status

Active

Launched

2005

Mission & specifications

Mission

Operator: NASA
Launched: August 12, 2005
Status: Active

Trajectory

Current speed: 3.4 km/s
Distance from the Sun: 1.5 AU
Distance from Earth: 1.9 AU
Distance from Mars: 2,503,383 km

Cost & funding

Program cost: $7.20 × 10⁸ USD

Mission

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is one of the most productive spacecraft ever sent to another planet — part camera, part radar, part radio relay, and a fixture of Mars exploration for nearly two decades. Launched on 12 August 2005 and in orbit since March 2006, it carries HiRISE, the most powerful camera ever flown to another world, sharp enough to pick out objects less than a metre across — it can photograph the rovers on the surface, and the parachutes of new landers as they arrive. Alongside it, a shallow-sounding radar reads the layered ice and rock just beneath the surface, and an imaging spectrometer maps minerals across the globe, identifying clays and salts that formed in ancient water and helping choose where later missions would land. MRO's images revealed dark streaks that flow down warm slopes in the Martian summer, traced towering dust storms, and watched fresh impact craters and shifting dunes change the planet's face from year to year. Just as importantly, its powerful radio acts as the main relay between Earth and the spacecraft working on the surface, handling the flood of data from Curiosity, Perseverance and others and the critical signals during their landings. Built for a primary mission of a few years, MRO has instead become the long-lived eye in the Martian sky that nearly every modern Mars mission depends upon.

2005Launch toward MarsLaunch
An Atlas V sends the orbiter and its powerful camera toward the red planet.
2006Mars orbit insertionArrival
MRO arrives and begins half a year of aerobraking to reach its low science orbit.
2006Science operations beginMilestone
HiRISE starts returning the sharpest images of Mars ever taken, resolving features under a metre.
2011Seasonal flows discoveredMilestone
MRO spots dark streaks that creep down warm slopes in summer, hinting at briny water.

Images

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter above Mars — artist's impression, not a photograph — NASA/JPL/Corby Waste · Wikimedia Commons

Artist Concept of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter — NASA/JPL · NASA Image Library

Orbit Insertion by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Artist Concept — NASA/JPL · NASA Image Library

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Aerobraking Artist Concept — JPL/NASA · NASA Image Library

Hoisting a Camera for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter — NASA/JPL/LMSS · NASA Image Library

Positioning a Camera for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter — NASA/JPL/LMSS · NASA Image Library

Installing a Camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter — NASA/JPL/LMSS · NASA Image Library

Telescopic Camera for Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Front End — NASA/JPL/Ball Aerospace · NASA Image Library

Images from open archives · credit shown per image