On Aug. 12, 2005, NASA launched its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission lifted off on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V-401 rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (now known as the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station) in Florida.
Some of the best cameras ever launched into space are on MRO, and the spacecraft has taken some seriously amazing photos of Mars. The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE camera, takes super-sharp photos of the Martian surface and has helped NASA scout the Red Planet for suitable landing sites for rovers like Curiosity. It also serves as a data relay station for other spacecraft on Mars that need to beam data back to Earth.
MRO has also studied water and ice on Mars, and its cameras have revealed some pretty remarkable landscapes.
Why it mattered
Now operational for more than 20 years, MRO serves as one of NASA’s oldest spacecraft in operation around the Red Planet. It has become instrumental in the space agency’s ability to maintain communication with other probes in orbit around Mars and rovers on the planet’s surface.
The probe’s HiRISE camera revolutionized scientists’ understanding of Mars’ diverse surface features, with resolution high enough to picture objects as small as 3 feet (1 meter) wide. Since its arrival in orbit around Mars on March 10, 2006, MRO has snapped more than 100,000 images of the surface below and helped NASA track geologic activity like migrating dunes, impact craters, avalanches, dust storms and seasonal frost changes. And NASA is still finding ways to put the aging satellite’s scientific instruments to good use. For example, the agency executed a 120-degree roll program last year designed to strengthen MRO’s SHARAD radar signal by 10 times or more, allowing it to probe deeper than 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) underground to detect water ice.
MRO’s role as a communications relay for probes on and around Mars became even more important earlier this year, when NASA’s MAVEN mission ended in June. Today, MRO returns around 80,000 megabits of data per day, according to Astronomy.com, and remains one of NASA’s most critical assets in orbit around Mars.