WEBVTT

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So what happens just after liftoff? Just how does the MRO spacecraft get from Earth to Mars? Dr. Richard Zurek,

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And then we dip into the atmosphere on each of 500 orbits. As we dip into the atmosphere,

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MRO project scientist, takes a closer look with this fascinating animation.

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This August is an opportunity to launch a spacecraft to Mars. These opportunities come every 26 months, and in August we'll be launching the

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Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the latest in a series of spacecraft that we've sent to Mars as part of an exploration of the planet,

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with a follow-the-water theme. The next step in our journey to Mars will start from Florida.

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Here you see the Atlas V rocket lifting off with the

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Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter at the top, inside of the fairing that covers it and protects it during the launch.

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As it goes up from the Cape Canaveral launch site, the first stage is taking us through the atmosphere, up into the upper reaches.

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There you see the rocket up at the top, it's covered in the shroud. The first stage separates and falls away, and the second stage

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will then take over. But first we jettison the fairing, and you can see the high-gain antenna which sits at the top of the

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Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft. Eventually, we separate from the boosters.

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The Centaur turns and fires away so that it won't continue on to Mars.

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We only want the spacecraft, not the booster, to go on to the Red Planet.

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Early in its cruise phase, we deploy the solar arrays.

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That's to help us get the batteries charged up and to keep them charged. It also is the configuration

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in which we fly to the rest of the planet. Here you see the high-gain antenna deployed,

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and this is the final deployment. And in this configuration,

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we then cruise out towards Mars. That journey takes about seven months, from August to March of 2006. And once we get to the Red Planet,

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we'll have to turn around, use our rocket motors to break into orbit around the planet. But during this cruise phase, it's a very busy time.

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We do a series of course maneuvers that correct the orbit to make sure we get through at the right time. And in fact, we actually fly in front of

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the planet and the planet catches up with us. As we go into orbit around it, we fire the six thrusters that are the main engine of the spacecraft,

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and this is the view as if you were approaching Mars. We come in and Mars catches up to us. We pass under the south pole,

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and we go into a very elliptical orbit. If we had a spacecraft out called "Spy Mars" and could watch the approach of the spacecraft,

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then what we would see is the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter coming in, firing its rocket engines, this is a 20-minute burn, which is the longest

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burn since the launch for our spacecraft, and the last part of it actually happens out of sight on the far side of the planet.

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Here you see that we go into an elliptical orbit, that's what the thrusters put us into.

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the friction causes us to lose energy and so the farthest

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point moves in closer and closer to the planet. Initially, that orbit is 35 hours long, but eventually it will get down to a two-hour, polar orbit,

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fixed at the right local time for us to do our primary science observations later in the mission.

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This simulation shows the typical paths of flying

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into the atmosphere of Mars. The catch is, of course, is to go deep enough to get enough drag to slow you down, and not to go

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too deep so that you overheat and damage components of the spacecraft.

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And this we do 500 times in preparation for getting into that final orbit where we will then conduct a two-year science mission.

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